The dragsters are on track now but we won't be able to report on the entire session, as this is a work day for the webmaster. However, we can report that the first car out of the lanes, Earl Nichols Jr. in the Samsel Racing "rent-a-ride" ran a career best at 5.192 - 273.22 to show just how fast the conditions were.

The Pep Boys NHRA Nationals has begun

Even though the VERY fast, and REALLY loud cars don't start qualifying until tomorrow, the event is underway with all the Sportsman categories running under warm sunny skies in rural Pennsylvania. The weather forecast for the weekend is good, the pits are more or less full of race cars, and spectator attendance should be very good. There's 16 cars entered in Top Fuel, 17 in Funny Car, and a whopping 22 cars in Pro Stock. Only one PRO category, Pro Stock Motorcycle, is a little light on entrants, with just 15 riders on the list. In Top Alcohol, there's 19 dragsters, and as has become all too common in recent years, only ten in Funny Car.

We'll be following the race closesly, both for the countdown results, and the Top Alcohol championships. Keep checking back throughout the weekend for updates on this page.

The Countdown is ON

With the first of six races in the countdown starting tomorrow at Reading, PA's Maple Grove Raceway, the pressure to perform will be squarely on the drivers and crews in the PRO categories. When the "playoff" system came into being, it di eliminate the chance for a runaway season by one dominating team and created a levelled playing field for the final quarter of the season. A very good case in point is on display in Pro Stock Motorcycle, with relative newcomer Gaige Herrera 326 points in front of his nearest challenger, Matt Smith following the U.S. Nationals.

Even though the leaders in the other three eliminators have seen their leads diminished substantially, none were in a completely commanding position with six events and 24 rounds of eliminations remaining on the schedule. The graphics below show every countdown participant's points following the "reset", and these graphics will be updated at the conclusion of each race remaining in the 2023 season. Follow along and see how the lead(s) shift, racers fortunes wax and wane, and ultimately, who takes the BIG championship trophies at the end of the season. Or, as has happened before, at Las Vegas, or Dallas if the cards fall the right way for one team.

We've received all the photos from final eliminations at the U.S. Nationals and we're posting them further down the page. Quick access to the gallery is available by clicking HERE. Note that we will be adding photos and captions throughout the next few days.

Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series - Nitro Nationals - Tulsa Raceway Park

The fifth of six major events on the Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series calendar gets underway Friday at Osage Casino & Hotel Tulsa Raceway Park. Racers from as far north as Victoria, BC (Phil Ruskowski) and all the way east to Ohio (Tyler Hilton) will be competing in Top Fuel. While we don't know exactly which Funny Car racers will be coming down from Washington state, we can expect Drew Austin, Bucky Austin, Kris Krabill, and possibly Michael Peck Sr. or Jr. to be making the tow down to Oklahoma. And there's sure to be a number of California cars making the trek east.

We're not sure how much news we can expect from the event, other than regular postings on the Island Nitro Facebook page by the Canadian team, running the "Xibitionist" small-block Chevy powered Top Fuel entry. Checking around on the internet, we should be able to dig up enough info from various sources to piece together at least a quick synopsis of the on-track action at Tulsa.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Chaos Cajun Nationals - State Capitol Raceway

Originally scheduled to be held as the second race on the schedule, in mid April, the Chaos Cajun Nationals was moved to the end of the calendar and became the 2023 season finale. With most of the Top Ten racers in FCC are competing, there's room for a few more to join that group and take home an extra $1,000 for finishing between #6 and #10 on the final points tally.

Funny Car Chaos employs a unique system of having a "drop" race for all contestants, which allows them to skip one event - usually the longest, and therefore most expensive, tow without losing out on a points earning opportunity. If a racer attends every event on the schedule, then they have to drop the lowest points earning event from their final tally. The graphic below illustrates the current situation for the Top Twenty racers, showing the points they have going into the season finale, and the net points after the drop.

We'll update the points after the first two qualifying sessions on Friday as the racers head into the final day of competition on Saturday.

NOTE: Points with a YELLOW background will be dropped to arrive at a net total for each racer.

Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Top Alcohol national championship standings

NOTE: To see a larger version, just click on the graphic. Points in RED have been waived. Event abbreviations in BOLD are races entered. Events that are XXX'd out are ones not possible for the racer to attend.

One thing that is almost certain in Top Alcohol Dragster is that defending - and five-time champion, Joey Severance will not be retaining his crown in 2023. The final nail in the coffin of their championship hopes came in the final qualifying session at Brainerd, when he broke the crankshaft, effectively wiping out the engine. With not enough parts in the trailer to put another one together, the Severance team withdrew from the event, and went home to lick their wounds. With no entries from them for at least the next two events, their championship hopes have all but evaporated.

At the top of the standings going into the U.S. Nationals, Shawn Cowie saw his tenuous lead go away very quickly following an untimely first round loss. After a great start to the season, with a regional win at Phoenix, and a runnerup at the Winternationals, Cowie hasn't gone past the second round at a national event since. That's six races with three first round exits, and three losses in the second round. Giving him any chance for a title this year is his three regional event wins, gaining the maximum points possible on that side of the ledger. With three national events left in the western half of the country (Dallas, Las Vegas & Pomona), all tracks that Cowie traditionally runs well at, he does have a viable chance to get back to the top of the list.

Holding down the top two spots on the leader board are perennial contender Julie Nataas, in the #1 spot with a slim 21-point lead over relative newcomer Tony Stewart. Both racers were in a virtual tie for second place until Indy, but Stewart's quarter-final loss, coupled with Julie's runnerup finish made for the current gap between them. While Stewart has entered the Reading and Charlotte races, there are no pre-entries on the docket for Nataas at this point. However, it looks probable that she will be at ZMax Dragway next week, otherwise she will miss a chance to maximize her points earnings possibilities with just three events remaining after Charlotte.

While no one in the Top Ten, and for that matter, only one racer, (Chris Demke), in the Top 20 mathematically eliminated, the hopes for the racers lower down in the Top Ten, Jasmine Salinas, and Cody Krohn are all but gone as neither racer has any pre-entries to their name. Further up the list, #5 Matt Cummings could gain some serious ground with a win at Reading in a "home track" race for the McPhillips Racing conglomerate. If he could take the event trophy, then a few more appearances could be in the offing for the hard running team.

Two contenders that have flown somewhat under the radar this season, at least until Indy, are Madison Payne and Mike Coughlin. Payne, in only her second full season on the national tour, took home the trophy at the U.S. nationals and moved into a contending position. While she is 170 points behind Nataas, she has one regional event remaining that could add 53 points to her current total, and she has entries in for the next three national events. With the momentum that the Indy win gave her, she has a real chance to move up the list in the coming weeks. She may just surprise a few folks along the way.

The other racer in that seventh place tie, is Mike Coughlin, who drives the Samsel Racing A/Fuel Dragster. Unfortunately, following his event win at the Charlotte 4-wides in the spring, and wins at regional events in Columbus, OH and Bowling Green, KY, Coughlin fell in the first round at Indy. That didn't put an end to his championship hopes, but with no pre-entries in his name at this point, time is rapidly running out for him to make a run for the top.

Following the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals we will update this story with the latest points totals and prognostications for the championship chase.

NOTE: To see a larger version, just click on the graphic. Points in RED have been waived. Event abbreviations in BOLD are races entered. Events that are XXX'd out are ones not possible for the racer to attend.

The situation is much simpler in Funny Car, as defending champion, Doug Gordon, has been atop the standings for most of the season, and with five national event wins, is in by far the strongest position to repeat as champion in his final season of driving. Three time champion, Sean Bellemeur, in the very potent "Killer B's" car is nearly 140 points behind Gordon, and needs to repeat his Indy win at Reading this week, and Charlotte next week, to have a chance to overtake the leader.

If Bellemeur can win the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals he would move to within 54 points of Gordon, and if he could three-peat at the betway NHRA Carolina Nationals next week, he would tie Gordon for the lead. However, that would leave Bellemeur with only two more national events to gain points, while Gordon will have three races remaining at that point. Additionally, Gordon has two regional events left on his ledger, while Bellemeur is down to one. It will be very interesting to see how the next 12 days play out in the championship chase.

Sitting in third place, Bob McCosh Jr., has had a very successful season, with one national event win in three final rounds, and two wins, and a runnerup at the regional level. He's slightly more than 200 points in arrears of Gordon at this point, but with entries in the next four national events, there's lots of room for him to augment his points total considerably. With only five national events attended, compared to Bellemeur's six, and Gordon's seven, McCosh is well positioned to start adding to his total this week at Reading. Stay tuned to this story as he is running well, and fresh off a regional win at Earlville yesterday. Momentum can be a powerful force and he definitely has it on his side. A real darkhorse pick but a viable one.

Two other longshots, Matt Gill, currently #5 in the standings, and Ulf Leanders, #7 have mathematical chances to overtake Gordon, but both must make the most of their chances at Reading. If either falls early, their championship aspirations could be finished. The #4 points holder, Brian Hough, hasn't entered Reading, and if he doesn't enter the Charlotte race, then he will be officially eliminated from championship contention.

Following the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals we will update this story with the latest points totals and prognostications for the championship chase.

NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series enters the homestretch

When the NHRA 2023 season opened with three regional events in late February and early March, then shifted to national events with the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in mid-March, it seemed like a very long season was just beginning. Now, 17 regional and 15 national events later, it seems to be very quickly heading to a conclusion. In fact, just nine weeks from tomorrow, it will all end at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona, CA.

While the PRO racers enter their six-race "Coundown to the Championship", and for the first time, the Pro Mod contingent will have their own mini Countdown, which started following the Norwalk event in June. The "Road to the Championship" for Pro Mod has just four events, with two of them, Brainerd and Indy, already completed. The remaining races will be held at St. Louis (NHRA Midwest Nationals), and Las Vegas (NHRA Nevada Nationals), with the championship crown being handed out on the big stage at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The Top Alcohol racers have a very different path to their respective championships, which combine 22 regional and 14 national events during the season. Racers can enter as many races as they wish, but can only claim points from seven of their first ten national events, and three of their first five regional events. There is quite a bit of strategy at play in choosing when and where to run, with calculations including car counts and level of competition, to travel costs - a serious factor in the 2020's - to atmospheric and track conditions.

Until late in the season, when racers in serious contention for a championship have used up most, or all, of their points earning events, it's difficult to see just how the championship standings will unfold. At this writing, there are nearly two dozen Top Alcohol Dragster racers with at least a mathematical chance of taking the season title, while in the Funny Car ranks, there's only 11 competitors with even a mathematical chance of victory. That is due, at least in part, to the continuing decline in the number of alcohol Funny Cars running, despite the inclusion of the injected nitro at the beginning of the season, which was intended (or at least hoped) to increase participation numbers.

DODGE Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals - ELIMINATIONS

After a few dramatic moments in the final qualifying sessions, four full fields of PRO drivers and crews anxiously awaited the start of one gruelling day of final eliminations. For half the contestants their six-day odyssey of the U.S. Nationals would come to an early end in the next hour but for the first round winners, another hour or two or three of hard work and close competition lay ahead. While we don't have pics of every car that went down the track on Monday, we've provided a wide cross-section of racers in all four categories.

TOP FUEL Eliminations - Round ONE

(LEFT) With some of the best atmospheric and track conditions of the weekend, the #8 vs #9 pairing opened Top Fuel eliminations, Driving the "Kalitta Air" entry, Shawn Langdon prevailed in this match against Josh Hart (not shown), despite a misfiring cylinder that limited him to a 3.809 - 315.71 clocking.

(RIGHT) The underdog extraordinaire from Chicago, T. J. Zizzo, running with "Rustoleum" backing, came into the first round with lane choice, but left late and smoked the tires early, falling to Clay Millican (not shown) with a coasting 4.348 - 183.59 effort. After running so well in qualifying, with a 3.736 - 330.07 in Friday's first session, this loss had to be a major diappointment.

(LEFT) The first upset of the round came next, as #2 qualifier, Brittany Force, left with opponent Antron Brown (not shown) and was side-by-side with him at the 660' mark, before exploding the supercharger and slowing to a losing 3.870 at only 244.21 mph. For Brown, after nothing but struggles in qualifying, to get past a very tough opponent in the first round was quite a turnaround

(RIGHT) Another racer that doesn't run on a regular basis, with the U.S. Nationals being just his sixth race of the season, is Doug Foley, sporting the colours of "Alloy". He improved on his qualifying best, pounding out a 3.763 - 317.87 against Justin Ashley (not shown), but it was all undone by a slightly late leave. Giving Ashley a seven hundredths advantage in reaction times is usually a fatal mistake, and this time it certainly was.

(LEFT) With owner Pat Dakin content to be on the sidelines, Spencer Massey ran well in qualifying, dipping into the 3.70's with the "Commercial Metals" car. He stayed in the 3.7-zone, with a very good 3.798 - 326.95, but it wasn't quite enough to stay with Doug Kalitta (not shown). Both drivers left together, but Kalitta's low e.t. of the meet 3.692 was simply too good.

(RIGHT) Qualifying for the first time in his nascent Top Fuel career, former A/Fuel Dragster racer Will Smith wheeled the Larry Dixon-owned "Band of Brothers" entry to a 3.822 - 312.78 to hold down the bump spot. He nearly matched those numbers in the opening round, with a solid 3.830 - 309.42, and a quicker reaction (.033) time than his opponent, Steve Torrence, (not shown). But it wasn't enough to stay with the former world champion.

Even though it was before noon, the exhaust flames were clearly visible on the Tony Schumacher driven "Scag" entry, and it was a good precursor to a solid 3.770 - 326.00, his best of the event. He even left first by a few thousandths on opponent Doug Kalitta (not shown), but the margin at the finish line was .005 seconds in Kalitta's favour, and a 3-ft win, by far the closest race of the round.

FUNNY CAR Eliminations - Round ONE

(LEFT) Funny Car's ultimate underdog, Terry Haddock, who virtually trademarked the phrase "I'm too stupid to quit" has come a long way from his "cannon fodder" days. With expert tuning assistance from Johnny West, he's qualified at nine of the ten events he's entered this season. A solid 4.0 performer, he stayed right there with a 4.060 - 300.80 (shutting off a little early), but it was several car lengths behind opponent Bob Tasca III (not shown).

(RIGHT) A part-timer, partly due to his college studies, and partly due to a less than gargantuan budget, second-generation flopper pilot Bobby Bode III came into eliminations without a full pass on his qualifying card. He ran into the same problems that beset him in qualifying, running well to half track, before slowing to a losing 4.187 - 253.90 against a much quicker and faster effort from Alexis DeJoria (not shown).

(LEFT) Low qualifier Robert Hight, matched his speed with a 329.67, but fell just a tad short on e.t. with a 3.889 being just a few ticks slower than his #1 qualifying 3.853. Even though he left second to opponent Paul Lee (not shown), he ran away to a train length victory.

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PRO STOCK Eliminations - Round ONE

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Eliminations - Round ONE

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PRO MODIFIED Eliminations - Round TWO

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FACTORY X Eliminations - Round ONE

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TOP FUEL Eliminations - Round TWO

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FUNNY CAR Eliminations - Round TWO

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PRO MOD Eliminations - Semi-Finals

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER Eliminations - Semi-Finals

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TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR Eliminations - Semi-Finals

TOP FUEL Eliminations - Semi-Finals

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FUNNY CAR Eliminations - Semi-Finals

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PRO STOCK Eliminations - Semi-Finals

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Eliminations - Semi-Finals

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PRO STOCK Eliminations - FINAL

FUNNY CAR Eliminations - FINAL

TOP FUEL Eliminations - FINAL

STOCK & SUPER STOCK Eliminations - FINALS

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COMP & FACTORY X Eliminations - FINALS

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PRO MODIFIED & TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - FINALS

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TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR Eliminations - FINALS

UPDATE: Ron Farmer passing on September 1st

We received some shocking, and sad news today of the recent passing of one of the true icons of drag racing in British Columbia, and indeed, in all of Canada. Ron Farmer was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the British Columbia Custom Car Association in 1951, and managed the original Mission Racewayfrom it's opening in 1965 until it's closing. If it wasn't for his passion for the sport, and his determination to not let the closing of the original track in 1978 be the end of drag racing in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Mission Raceway Park would not exist.

When the original track closed to make way for a business park, there was a deal made on an alternate, and much larger, site further from the city of Mission. With an agreement that the Provincial government would fund the necessary earthworks to make the new site suitable for a dragstrip and associated activities, the BCCCA felt that racing would resume within two years.

Two years turned into 26 years and if not for the herculean efforts headed by Ron Farmer, the new track would have never been built. After a Provincial Ombudsman's report, and a Supreme Court case, amends were made to the club, and construction of the new facility was completed in early 1992. Now, more than thirty years later, MRP is still a first-class facility with one of the smoothest, fastest drag strips in the world, and atmospheric conditions that are rarely matched elsewhere.

All drag racers, fans, and anyone who knows anyone connected to the sport should be thankful that people like Ron Farmer were among us. May his spirit and memory live on in all of us. RIP, Ron.

A photo of Ron Farmer, with the kind permission of Larry "Horsepower Heaven" Pfister taken from the roof of the timing tower as the new Mission Raceway was under construction (March 11, 1990)

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

(LEFT) Laying down a strong, but slightly off-course burnout, was returning veteran of the FCC circuit, Daniel Butherus in his turbocharged BBC-powered "Rat-A-Tude". He laid down a mediocre 5.032 - 154.78 pass, but the excitement started when he pulled the chutes.

(RIGHT) From this angle it looks like Butherus was being rear-ended by Alex Barker's GTO, but there was no contact between the two cars, despite the wildly out-of-shape stance of the Firebird-bodied flopper as it crossed into Barker's lane and swung wildly from side to side before he wrestled it to a stop.

(LEFT) Making his first appearance of the season, Sweden's Joacim (Joe) Ljungberg, in the California-based "Raw Valley" entry, improved from his Friday best of 4.673, stopping the timers with a 4.567 - 158.17 that placed him in the "C" field.

(RIGHT) Back on the FCC circuit after missing the last two races, Steve Timoszyk wheeled the "Detroit Tiger" Monza to a good 4.092 - 179.86 pass, but it wasn't quite as quick as his earlier 4.026 - 180.43 effort, leaving him in the middle of the "B" field.

(LEFT) With a 3.966 e.t. on the leader board from Friday night, Jade Cook put down a hard burnout in her ProCharger-blown "Nemesis". While she didn't match her earlier best, an early shutoff 4.196 at just 139.28 mph showed that there was plenty of power under the Dodge-bodied entry.

(RIGHT) Launching with the wheels up, as many cars did on the sticky Mo-Kan starting line, Clay Cunningham went on a wild ride In the "Still Crazy" entry, crossing the centerline, taking out the 330' timing block and skating to a DQ'd 4.596 - 156.90 time, as he never lifted, despite the almost out of control attitude of his car.

(LEFT) Looking for better numbers than Friday's 4.055 - 157.18, Mike Newkirk pushed his "Disturbed" entry to a brilliant 3.807 - 199.38 to take at least a temporary hold on the #3 position on the "A" field ladder. The new body and chassis were required after his off the end of the track "excursion" at the Eddyville event in May. Fortunately, he was able to find an ex-Doug Gordon rolling chassis with body and three months later he was back in business.

(RIGHT) Pulling the chutes on his new look, and named car, North Dakota's Jim Chase proved that his "Hot Pursuit" entry was still "Wicked-ly Quick", as he sat near the top of the list with a Friday best of 3.776 - 194.22. This final qualifying pass wasn't better, as a 4.087 - 183.00 came up on the scoreboard.

(LEFT) Still working on the tuneup in the injected nitro burning Corvette, Tod Barker came close to backing up his earlier 4.217 e.t., with a competitive 4.329 - 165.38 pass that left him in the bottom half of the "B" field.

(RIGHT) Trying hard to qualify, Kris Battey, in the "Batmobile" entry, didn't have quite enough as his best pass of the weekend came in this session, but a 4.754 - 147.83, fell just short of the 4.692 "C" field bubble.

(LEFT) Taking one more shot at the timers, despite being at the top of the qualifying sheet with an earlier 3.725 - 209.21, the "Man O' War II" thundered to an even better 3.719 - 211.07 to show everyone that the Ken Singleton-tuned entry was ready to take on all comers.

(RIGHT) After towing all the way to Maryland for last week's FCC event, Oklahoman Jordan Ballew made three consistent runs in qualifying here, with this one being a little slower (4.411 - 162.87 than his earlier best of 4.383 - 167.29 that left him in the #22 spot at the close of qualifying. Ths run was also the final round of the Kearney event, which saw Ballew finish in the runnerup spot in the "C" field to Mike Buchanan (not shown).

(LEFT) You could title this as "won the battle, lost the war", as Tom Furches laid down a great 4.080 - 161.75 to take the Kearney win in the "B" field, over a redlighting Chris Schneider (not shown). However, as the "Made In America" entry neared the finish line, he slowed with possible engine damage, and he was unable to appear for eliminations. The large white cloud that trailed him through the lights was the ashes of a dear friend being taken for a last ride down the strip and scattered in the shutdown area.

(RIGHT) Qualifying closed with a newcomer to the series, Roger Eckhert making a much improved pass over his 9-second clocking of Friday. The '66 Chevy II looked good and with more experience and some tuning, could be a good addition to the Funny Car Chaos contingent.

With a total of 33 cars in attendance, and just three 8-car fields being contested, there were a few racers going home disappointed. Three of them turned up broken before the first round: the aforementioned Tom Furches, and Lance Van Hauen, as the car apparently broke on the burnout in the third qualifying session. Matt Nissen who qualified #26, and would have made it into the "C" field as an alternate, wasn't able to make it, elevating Michael Neal (#27 on the list) into eliminations.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "A" Field eliminations - Round #1

(LEFT) With an all 3-second field, there were bound to be some very difficult races, starting in the opening round. The Texas-based "War Machine" of #8 qualifier Jeff Cameron, fresh off his delayed victory at Kearney earlier in the day, faced defending series champion Kirk Williams as eliminations opened.

(RIGHT) As can be seen in the photo, the black nose of Williams' "200 Proof" car appears to be well in front of Cameron just off the line. That wasn't an optical illusion as Williams left first by an .056 to .213 margin and increased the lead all the way down the track, taking a resounding 3.723 - 206.33 win over Cameron's best of the weekend 3.804 - 207.37 losing effort.

Despite laying down a hard burnout, Jim Chase struck the tires early and coasted to a 5-second e.t., losing to Mike Newkirk (not shown), who advanced to the semifinal with a very good 3.914 - 170.84 clocking.

Seen from two angles, courtesy of our husband (Bob Snyder) and wife (Ginger), the Terry Darby-tuned and Aaron Morrow driven "Nitro Relapse" entry qualified strongly with a 3.920 - 204.36 best. He upped the pace in the first round with an even better 3.858 - 190.92 as opponent Keith Zimmerer (barely visible in the background of the photo on the right), broke on the launch. Unfortunately, Morrow wasn't able to return for the semifinals as the car burnt three pistons on this pass.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "B" Field eliminations - Round #1

The "B" field was running on a 3.76 index, established by top qualifier Jade Cook's great 3.966 qualifying pass, but it didn't appear anyone would be capable of going under that number. In the first pair, Bob Alberty Jr. in his "Thunderin' Okie" certainly brought the thunder with the quickest e.t. of the round, at 4.055 - 164.90, coupled with a nearly two tenths holeshot over his opponent, Tod Barker (not shown). One glitch occured though, as Alberty smacked the wall - hard - just before the finish line, DQ'ing the run and advancing Barker to the next round.

The second pair of the round matched the #4 and #5 qualifiers, Chris Schneider in the Mach 1-bodied "Brutus", against the later model Mustang of Mary Reep. Schneider left first by half a tenth and stretched the lead all the way with a winning 4.161 - 175.17 pass, over the slowing 4.434 - 149.06 effort of Reep.

(LEFT) Staying solidly in the 4.0's, Steve Timoszyk pounded out another great pass at 4.061 - 183.52 to take the automatic win over red-lighting opponent, Tony Arcuri (not shown), who wasted a good 4.238 - 168.41 run. Timosyzk's run was quickest of the round and earned him lane choice over Tod Barker in the second round.

(RIGHT) Closing the first round was the match between the top and bottom qualifiers, with Wayne Hofmann (near lane), knowing he was going to have to pull out all the stops to get past the very tough Jade Cook, in the far lane. Hofmann tried a little too hard and red-lighted by .061, throwing away a decent 4.213 - 168.16, and making Cook the winner. She didn't take it easy though, pushing the "Nemesis" to a very good 4.071 - 175.78, and gaining lane choice in the semifinal round.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "C" Field eliminations - Round #1

(LEFT) A welcome addition to the FCC is the Firebird-bodied "Tremor" brought out by Ilinois's . During qualifying, he progressed from an opening 4.71, to a 4.56, and finally, a 4.30 to end at the top of the "C" field. He slowed slightly in the opening round to a 4.420 - 148.47, but it was still more than enough to take out Michael Neal's (not shown) 4.709 pass.

(RIGHT) With a redlight shining on the Christmas tree in the other lane, Shane "Smokey" Blanton was off and running to an automatic win. He ran into trouble down track and shut off to a slow, but winning, 5.734 - 93.17, over Jordan Ballew's just a little too quick -.006 reaction time.

(LEFT) Running his first elimination round in FCC competition in nearly a year, Joacim Ljungberg laid down a hard burnout before staging up to face opponent Mike Buchanan. Ljungberg got a little too anxious to get to the finish line, launching the "Raw Valley" Firebird before the tree was activated. Buchanan took and easy cruise into the semifinals, albeit without lane choice.

(RIGHT) Taking a break from the action to share some time with one of the numerous pets on hand for the event, dog-loving Bob Snyder was enjoying the attention from this friendly fellow.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "A" Field eliminations - Round #2

We've only got one photo from the second round, but this one of Kirk Williams doing a strong burnout in the "200 Proof" car pretty much sums up the action in the round. With no opponent in the other lane, due to Aaron Morrow's engine damage in the first round, Williams didn't spare the horses as he lit up the scoreboard with an excellent 3.722 - 205.86 to come close to Ronny Young's low e.t. of the meet 3.706 in the first round.

Before Williams' automatic advancement to the final round, the first pair of the second round turned into a bye run also. First round winner Mike Newkirk, was unable to make it back to the lanes after finding a broken rear end following his first round win. Not wanting to waste fuel or parts, Shayne Lawson simply staged the "Man O' War II" before shutting off on the starting line for the automatic win.

We don't have any photos of this round either, but we can report that Jade Cook started drifting towards the guardrail, forcing her to shut down to a losing 4.360 - 127.30, indicating that she was enroute to some very good numbers. Taking advantage of her plight, Chris Schneider pounded out what could be a career best 4.093 - 177.51 to move to the final. The other pair turned into a bye run for Steve Timoszyk as opponent Tod Barker was unable to fire his injected nitro Corvette. Timoszyk ran hard, with a great 4.059 - 176.61 being quick enough to grab lane choice over Schneider for the final.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "C" Field eliminations - Round #2

The first pairing of the round had Dana Kleinhoffer (near lane) and Shane Blanton (barely visible), in the far lane. Kleinhoffer left first by a .027 to .104 margin, but Blanton passed him early and held on for the win with a solid 4.239 - 172.22 win over Kleinhoffer's good try of 4.649 - 162.81 in the losing cause.

The other race of the round (not shown) saw "The Gambler" cash in his chips, redlighting away a great 4.236 - 175.71 pass, with a .007 redlight. The beneficiary of that mistake was Mike Buchanan who moved to his second final round of the day, after taking the Kearney event win earlier, with a coasting 5.449 - 89.95 pass.

Final round time featured multi-time event winner, Mike Buchanan in the unpainted/unwrapped newly carbon-fiber bodied Chevy Vega, facing the "Bad Company" Chevy Lumina of Shane Blanton. Despite being left on - big time - at the starting line with a .271 reaction, compared to Buchanan's much quicker .051, the Hemi-powered Lumina took the lead before the 330' mark, stopping the timers with an event winning 4.234 - 173.75, over Buchanan's simply too slow 4.731 - 157.78 effort.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "B" Field eliminations (FINAL)

What was intended to be a pair of hard running low 4.0-second cars turned into a bye run for winner Chris Schneider in the John Troxel-tuned "Brutus" Mach 1 Mustang. His scheduled opponent, Steve Timoszyk was unable to make the call after suffering serious engine damage in his semifinal win. Schneider made an even better run than his great 4.093 in the semifinal, lighting up the scoreboard with a 4.074 - 178.01 to show that they were truly on top of their tuneup after some disappointing outings this season.

Closing out the event were the two strongest and most durable cars on the Funny Car Chaos circuit. Defending series champion Kirk Williams in the Williams Brothers "200 Proof" entry (near lane in the left photo), started eliminations from the #2 spot (3.748), and carded back-to-back 3.72's to reach the final round. Facing him was the "Man O' War II" Mustang of low qualifier Shayne Lawson, who grabbed the top spot with an excellent 3.719, then won in the opening round with a 3.76, took an automatic bye win in the semis, before facing Williams in the final.

When the ambers flashed, Williams was away first with an .026 reaction to Lawson's .065 launch. Both drivers were well under one second in the first 60', Lawson quickest at .956, while Williams was a fraction slower at .958. When they passed the 330' timers, Williams had pulled into a solid lead with a 2.501 interval time, while Lawson was slower at 2.545, making the gap between the cars nearly a car length. The margin continued to grow all the way to the 660' finish line, with Kirk Williams blasting out a new low e.t. of the meet at 3.686 - 206.71 over a very close 3.759 - 209.79 from Lawson. It was a pair of great runs to cap off a very successful event in front of a large and appreciative audience.

The 69th annual DODGE Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals is in the books with some repeat winners, some new winners, and some great stories from Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. Attendance was very good on the weekend, and the racers filled the pits. We've posted yesterday's photos below and will start filling in the details tomorrow, and have today's photos from final eliminations posted at the same time. Tuesday morning update: We're still waiting for the photos from final eliminations as our hard working photographer, Dale Fackler who stood in the hot Indiana sun for five days capturing all the action, is now travelling home to Colorado. Until we have those photos, we've got time to fill in the details on everything leading up to the last day.

Sunday was a mixed bag, with the final two qualifying sessions for the PRO cars and bikes, and the new Factory X class, plus the first two rounds of eliminations for the Top Alcohol and Pro Mod categories. The day opened with continuing Sportsman eliminations, and closed with more of those eliminations, whittling down the Sportsman categories to the finalists for all but the Factory Stock Showdown eliminator.

FACTORY X - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

After a gestation period of more than a year, the first example of the new eliminator category, Factory X, made an exhibition appearance at Norwalk earlier in the year. Now, for the first time, a field of four cars will compete officially at a national event. The new class is scheduled to appear at three more events this season, and will hopefully see increased participation at those races, as more of these new cars are completed and readied for competition. Starting from its Factory Stock Showdown origins, the cars are the same dimensions as the stock models from Ford, Dodge, and Chevy, but with a full tube chassis, come in 1000 lbs lighter than the FSS cars, and have a wider (10.5-inch) tire to help with traction. With the chassis being certified to 25.1 specs, FX frees them from the constraints of the FSS cars that are only ceritified for 7.50 or slower e.t.'s.

It was recently announced that the first driver to break the 200-mph barrier will win a $10,000 from the Jesel valvetrain compnay, and the next seven drivers to exceed that speed will also receive a cash payout and membership in the Jesel 200-MPH Club. Additionally, for the top qualifier this weekend, a $1,000 bonus from Stanfield Racing Engines, has been offered.

(LEFT) With backing from Gil Kirk, founder of the "Rod Shop", long time sportsman, and former Pro Stock racer, Greg Stanfield, entered a Camaro that was fully tested and sorted. After failing to get very far on his first two qualifying attempts, it all came together in the third and final session, with a 7.236 - 190.83 to jump to the top of the field and show the potential for 6-second, 200+ mph performance in this class is almost a certainty in the near future.

(RIGHT) After leading the field through the first two sessions in his Mustang, long-time Ford racer Chris Holbrook nearly matched his earlier best e.t. with a very good 7.448 - 188.38 to stay in second place on the ladder behind Stanfield.

Trailing the top two qualifiers were former Pro Stock World Champion, Allen Johnson in Jeff Turk's "Blackbird" Challenger. Johnson's best effort in qualifying, a 7.689 - 180.50 placed him third on the ladder. Trailing the pack was the Camaro of James Cowan, as he could only muster an 8.196 - 168.11 timeslip.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE - Qualifying Session #4

(LEFT) Following a devastating two-bike crash with teammate Joey Gladstone two years ago, Cory Reed made his return to NHRA competition, riding a Suzuki Hayabusa. Coming into the fourth qualifying session, Reed was uncomfortably sitting on the bump spot at 7.210, and knew he needed to step up to be sure of making the 16-bike field. He did improve, with a 7.190 - 185.23 on the timeslip, but still only good enough for the #16 spot.

(RIGHT) Already placed in the top of the field with a previous best of 6.881, veteran rider Steve Johnson came close, but didn't better that number, stopping the clocks at 6.900 - 192.85 to remain in the #6 spot.

(LEFT) Former (6-time!) world champion Matt Smith, wanted to move closer to the top from his #4 position, but like so many riders in this session, was unable to match his earlier 6.877 e.t., and clocked in at 6.892 - 197.10 to rack up low e.t. of the session.

(RIGHT) Since debuting in Pro Stock Bike at this event last year, Gaige Herrera has been dominating the class this year, and had the #1 spot in the field firmly in his back pocket with a best of 6.746 - 198.46, but slowed two tenths from that number, with a 6.956 - 192.99 showing on the timers.

PRO STOCK - Qualifying Session #4

(LEFT) It's been a long season for family patriarch Fernando Caudra Sr., as he's only qualified four times in 11 events. With 17 cars in the pits, someone's going to be sitting out eliminations on Monday, and Fernando doesn't want it to be him. However, he's sitting on the bubble at 6.790, and is in danger of not qualifying. He picked up a little on this run, with a 6.770 - 203.58 but remained in the #16 spot, nearly a tenth behind the #15 car.

(RIGHT) A Pro Stock rookie in 2022, but not a newcomer to fast cars, Jerry Tucker, in an Elite Motorsports car, has won six rounds of racing, and made the semifinals at Chicago, but he came into this session in the #15 position. He improved four hundredths of a second, to a 6.664 - 206.80, but it wasn't enough to move up on the ladder.

(LEFT) One of the young Corral Boots drivers, Cristian Caudra, was sitting in the #8 spot at 6.604, but went backwards on this run, clocking in at 6.657 - 205.01.

(RIGHT) The third member of the team, with the youngest Caudra (David) staying home, Fernanado Jr. broke from the Mustang mold, and is fielding a Camaro this year. Holding the #7 position, just one thousandth of a second quicker than Cristian at 6.603, Fernando slowly slightly to a still very good 6.622 - 205.51, and still in the top half of the field at the end of the session.

(LEFT) Young Kyle Koretsky, dubbed "Kid Kaos", tied for the quickest pass of the session with his 6.617 - 206.26 on this pass, but it was a few ticks slower than his #6 qualifying 6.599 e.t. on Saturday.

(RIGHT) Second year Pro Stock racer, Camrie Caruso ran well, but not better, not being able to improve on her earlier 6.605 - 208.97 effort. Her speed on that run was just shy of Matt Hartford's top speed of the meet (to this point) 209.23 mph.

(LEFT) Hoping to cut just a tick off his previous 6.570 - 208.30 timeslip, Troy Coughlin Jr. fell to the conditions as did nearly everyone else in this session, slowing half a tenth, with a 6.625 - 207.88 pass.

(RIGHT) Coming into the session at the top of the list with a 6.569 - 209.23 best, Matt Hartford slowed six hundredths, with a 6.628 - 206.13 showing on the qualifying sheet. He was still #1 with Coughlin sitting just behind him.

Running in the final pair of the session, Greg Anderson needed to break into the 6.50's to bump his way into the top half of the field. His previous best was 6.622 - 206.57, and he went backwards with this run, slowing fractionally with a 6.641 - 205.69 to remain in the #1 position.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #4

With a bump spot of 4.089, held by Paul Lee as the session began, and just two more chances to improve on their e.t.s's, the two racers sitting outside the field knew they had to make it happen or face the prospect of not racing on Monday. First up in this session was the Funny Car All-Star Shootout, run as part of the 4th and 5th qualifying sessions.

(LEFT) Running against Tim Wilkerson (not shown), Matt Hagan advanced to the semifinal of the Callout with a solid 3.967 - 320.05 that easily covered Wilkerson's tire-smoking run. Hagan's run wasn't enough to move him up on the ladder, but it was consistent.

(RIGHT) In the final pair of the first round of the Callout, John Force faced Bob Tasca III (not shown). Both cars ran strong until near half track, when Force got way out of shape and shut off, and Tasca shut off, after hazin the tires, at almost the same time. Both cars coasted to the 1000' mark, with Force turning on the winlight by two car lengths with a less than scintillating 6.770 - 94.75 timeslip.

(LEFT) The first non-qualified car came out of the lanes next, with Floridian Dave Richards leading the way. His best to this point was a 4.121, less than half a tenth short of the bump spot. He gave it a good try, but the engine gave up just before the finish line, limiting him to a 4.154 - 300..06, that left him one final chance to grab a spot in the field.

(RIGHT) A racer that was fairly confident, sitting in the #13 spot with a 4.048 - 308.28 to his credit, Alex Laughlin pushed the Jim Dunn-tuned entry to a slightly better 4.037 - 307.02 pass but remained in the same position on the ladder.

Not part of the Callout "party" J.R. Todd ran last in this session and was on a march before the pipes went wet at the 660' mark and he coasted across the stripe at 4.228 - 226.96. With the car in other lane, Chad Green (not shown), stepping up, they swapped positions on the ladder, with Todd dropping to the #10 spot, based on his earlier 3.955 - 328.78 pass.

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #4

(LEFT) Starting the session in an unacustomed position, at the front of the lanes, Leah Pruett set the tone with a solid A to B pass at 3.790 - 325.37 that didn't move her up but was consistent with her earlier 3.730 that landed her in the #6 spot on the sheet.

(RIGHT) Running with an action movie inspired theme, Buddy "The Hull'k" clawed his way into the field with a very good 3.823 - 322.65 that elevated him from #17 to the bump spot at #16. And it was his second 3.8-run in a row, a good omen for this team that has struggled at times this season. They've qualified at four out of the five events they've attended, but 30 penalty points, from three oildowns, have dragged them down.

(LEFT) Sitting at the bottom of the list, in 19th place, was Canada's Dan Mercier with a fairly stout 3.878 - 310.,41 clocking to his credit. The Rob Wendland-tuned ex-Terry McMillen car has qualified at the three races they've run this year, but none of them were Indy. On this pass he lost a cylinder almost immediately and shut off before the half track with a 4.990 - 145.94 showing up on the scoreboard.

(RIGHT) A racer who was safely in the show, but wanting to get into the fast half of the field was Austin Prock. His best so far was a 3.781 - 326.08 that was only good enough for #11 on the ladder. He made a decent run this time, but it was half a tenth slower and didn't change his status.

The Commercial Metals machine of Pat Dakin, being driven most of the time by Spencer Massey was a little further down in the pecking order, with a 13th bes 3.795 - 323.04 but like all the other racers, they wanted more. It didn't happen as Spencer puffed the tires at the 330' mark and shut off to a 5.040 e.t.

(LEFT) Sporting a different look after bannering R+L Carriers for most of the past two years, Josh Hart switched it up to the "Technet" scheme for this race. He came into the session occupying the #8 spot on the ladder, and finished in the same spot. His run started well but a dropped cylinder cut the power output considerably, resulting in a 3.925 - 312.78 showing up on the clocks.

(RIGHT) The top qualifier remained in that lofty position, as Steve Torrence's earlier 3.708 - 329.42 remained the highwater mark for the Top Fuelers. This run lasted about 500 feet before the tires started smoking, causing him to coast to a 4.588 e.t.

FUNNY CAR - All-Star Callout (FINAL)

While the first two rounds of the 8-car Shootout counted towards qualifying, this final round didn't, but no ladder shattering e.t.'s resulted when Robert Hight and Matt Hagan (not shown) matched up. Hight took a slight .011 lead on the reaction timers, then extended it to a full car length by the finish line. The timers read 3.955 - 321.58 for Hight, while Hagan was close behind at 3.979 - 322.58 in the losing cause.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #5 (FINAL)

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TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #5 (FINAL)

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After starting the event with some crushing performances, Steve Torrence went "oh! for two" today, with back to back tire smokers, this time starting before the 330' timers. Despite those twin setbacks, he still sat atop the field at the conclusion of qualifying, with his best 3.708 - 329.42 setting the pace in a tightly packed field that saw the #16 qualifier, Will Smith, barely a tenth of a second slower at 3.822 and the first alternate, Buddy Hull, just one thousandth slower than him. Even the slowest of the 19 cars entered ran a 3.878 to show the performance levels in Top Fuel.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round #2

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69th annual DODGE Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals

Yesterday's action at Indy was spectacular, with some great performances in almost every category. We've got Top Alcohol Funny Car and Pro Modified to start today's posting, with lots of fuel cars and more alcohol racers, and even Pro Stock to follow. As always happens on a busy race weekend, captions and details will follow later. Remember to refresh or reload each time you visit this page to see the latest updates.

4:00 PM Update: We've got all of yesterday's photos posted now, but it will be tomorrow before we get much done on the captions. Stay tuned as we fill in the blanks and start uploading photos from today's action at "The Big GO"

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

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PRO MODIFIED - Qualifying Session #3

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PRO STOCK - Qualifying Session #2

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE - Qualifying Session #2

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #2

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FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #2

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PRO STOCK - Qualifying Session #3

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE - Qualifying Session #3

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TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #3

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FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #3

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Mo-Kan Dragway - Asbury, MO

Qualifying Session #1 (Mo-Kan) & Eliminations Round ONE (Kearney)

Due to the rainout of eliminations at the Kearney, NB race in early July, it was decided to run eliminations for that race as part of qualifying at Mo-Kan. Of the 24 cars that qualified at Kearney, six elected not to attend this event, leading to a number of bye runs in the first round of eliminations. At the end of Friday night, two qualifying sessions and two rounds of eliminations were completed. Today, during the final qualifying session, the final rounds from Kearney will be run, then eliminations for Mo-Kan will happen this evening. The weather forecast looks good, so the penultimate race on the 2023 FCC schedule should be completed as scheduled. NOTE: Captions and details will be added as time permits. They will be finished by tomorrow, but the balance of last night's photos will be posted this evening.

NOTE: The U.S. Nationals coverage is further down the page. Scroll down and you'll find it.

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Qualifying Session #2 (Mo-Kan) & Eliminations Round TWO (Kearney)

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69th annual DODGE Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals

Three days done and three more to go at the BIGGEST drag race on the planet. Our Colorado correspondent is burnt, literally and figuratively after two days in the sun at the starting line, but he's promised to hang in there until the end of this event. Here's his work from Friday. Captions will follow as soon as time permits.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR

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69th annual DODGE Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals

We're starting our U.S. Nationals coverage with some Super Stock shots, then move into Competition Eliminator. We'll be adding heaps more photos over the next four days, so stay tuned to this page and keep checking back regularly as we add more content.

(LEFT) Even though it says Kyle Ratcliffe or DAD on the door, Drag Race Central lists this '05 Pontiac Sunfire as being driven by Pete Peery. It's competing in the FGT/E (don't ask me what that class stands for) and qualified in the upper half of the Super Stock at #52 with a best of 8.894 on a 10.00 index.

(RIGHT) One of the Factory Super Stock cars, this '18 Camaro, driven by Chris Hall landed in the #50 spot on the list with a very quick 8.637 at more than 150 mph.

(LEFT) Sportsman racers aren't always too serious (unlike their PRO counterparts). A good example is Bill "The Polock" Zaskowski, with the name on the door of his '66 Chevy II, running in the GT/L class. With a 10.053 on the 10.85 index, he was nearly eight tenths under, but only #105 on the ladder.

(RIGHT) With 139 cars entered in Super Stock eliminator, and "only" 128 spots on the ladder, some racers had to go home with qualifying. One of them was this high-flying '85 Olds Cutlass of Zack Running, who ran slightly more than half a second under his 10.00 index, with a 9.492 pass, that just wasn't able to crack the -.671 bubble.

(LEFT) A great example of old-school dragster racing is the A/ND nostalgia dragster of Louisiana's Craig Bourgeois that runs well into the 6-second zone, with a best of 6.837 - 188.00. That placed him #21 on the list, well into the top half of the field.

(RIGHT) Defending world champion in Comp Eliminator, Rayn Priddy, ran 6.516 - 213.64 in his 2018 Camaro. The run was nearly six tenths under the A/AA index.

(LEFT) One of the nastiest looking cars in the category, the AA/AM of transplanted Washingtonian Brad Plourd (now residing in Alabama), wheeled the '23 T to a 6.46 - 207.30 to sit in the lower half of the very tough field of 61 cars.

(RIGHT) An orphan from the ill-fated Pro Stock Truck class, the '00 Chevy S-10 B/TA of Rick Brown clocked an 8.248 - 162.57 after this wheels-up launch. The run put him #27 on the qualifying list.

(LEFT) This is certainly a "one-off" as the turbocharged 4-cylinder Honda engine in Andrew Holt's I/Dragster cranked out a super impressive 6.505 - 204.29. That put him #3 on the ladder, nearly two thirds of a second under the 7.17 class index.

(RIGHT) One of the quicker econo altereds, the A/EA of Brian Stufflebeam pulls the wheel up enroute to a 7.297 - 180.77 in the '23 Model T roadster.

(LEFT) A rather unique looking '32 Bantam with a carbureted 4-cylinder engine, the H/EA of Matt Forbes posted a 9.199 on his 9.56 index.

(RIGHT) Running in the F/DA class, Brian Seibenick sat near the bottom of the qualifying list in the #54 spot with an 8.545 best that was barely two tenths under the index.

One of the hard running dragsters, this one being the C/DA Spitzer-chassied machine of Steve Szupka qualifed in the #6 spot in the 61-car field with a very quick 6.920 - 190.75 best.

It';s time for the HEMI Challenge racers now, as the "race within a race" qualifies the quickest Factory Suoer Stock cars from the famous 1968 Dodge Darts and Plymnouth Barracudas. There's been some great competition within this group over the years, but with the cost of racing ever increasing, and in this case, nearing the $1 million mark to be a serious player, the ranks are starting to thin a bit. Nonetheless, there's 14 cars competing here for the serious bragging rights that go the winner.

Pulling the front wheels up in a classic launch pose, Cleve Stewart clocked in at 9.048 - 146.23, well down the list from the top runners, but still looking good and running hard.

(LEFT) One of the heaviest of the heavy hitters is the Ray Barton Racing Engines powered '68 Dart of James Daniels Jr.. He won this event four times in succession, from 2016 through 2019. He's aiming to get back into the winners circle this weekend and with an 8.398 - 157.65 on the boards, he's defintely in contention, starting eliminations from the #2 spot on the ladder.

(RIGHT) Sitting just one notch below Daniels on the qualifying sheet is longtime competitor, Jim Pancake, also driving a Dart. His best of 8.418 - 158.46 has him right there in the hunt for his first win in this iconic event.

We've simply run out of time this morning to properly arrange and caption the following photos, but they will be completed this evening, just in time for the next batch of photos, from today's action to start arriving.

(LEFT) Coming all the way from San Dimas, CA, Tim Seymour's '16 Camaro, running in FSS/D broke into the 8-second zone, with a strong 8.992 on the 9.90 index. That put him #74 in the 128-car qualified field.

(RIGHT) Sitting near the top of a very long (139 cars) list, Ron Terrell's GT/LA '88 Camaro landed in the #8 position on the final qualifying order, with a best of 9.771 on the 11.05 class index.

(LEFT) Running slightly more than one second under the 11.75 index, Duane Hoven pushed his '71 Maverick to a 10.740 and the 51st spot on the ladder.

(RIGHT) Another wheels up launch, as all the Super Stocks do, Sterling Simmons launches his GT/FA '05 Cavalier to a 9.353 (10.25 index), placing him #76 on the ladder.

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(LEFT) It's a '99 Chevy S-10 Pro Stock Truck (running in Comp), that Taylor Chomiski ran to a 7.482, more than half a second under the 8.00 index, but only good enough for the #35 spot on the 64-car elimination ladder.

(RIGHT) There's got to be quite a story behind this "tribute" car, as Christopher Menapace has faithfully recreated the look of a very well known Top Alcohol Dragster from the past. With Specialty Fasteners as the primary sponsor, (Jerry) Darien & Meadows as the owenrs, and even (Gary) Scelzi on the cowl, as the driver, it's a perfect reproduction. And it certainly runs too, with a 6.197 - 223.99 pass after two rounds of Top Dragster qualifying.

Another Top Dragster, this one driven by South Carolina's Chad Taylor is precariously perched on the bubble of the 32-car field, with a best of 6.527 - 203.43 going into today's final qualifying session.

69th annual DODGE Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals

When a media credential for this race arrived in our email inbox two weeks ago, we thought it was a mistake. But not wanting to tempt fate by calling NHRA to see if it was sent in error, we contacted Dale Fackler to see if he could attend the race. Of course it didn't take more than a few seconds for him to respond with "are you kidding?". After assuring him it was the real deal - as far as we knew - he made arrangements to attend the biggest race of the season.

An hour ago, I received this photo confirming that it was all real and it's happening. Looks like it's going to be an extra busy weekend with Dale at Indy, and BIG Bob Snyder covering the Funny Car Chaos doubleheader at Mo-Kan Dragway (Asbury, MO). We expect to start receiving photos by tomorrow morning, and start posting them by tomorrow evening. Stay tuned for a big weekend of drag racing coverage at Northern Thunder!

It's going to be one VERY busy week!

As you can see by the event headers above, there is going to be three races this week, with the grand-daddy of them all, the 69th annual DODGE Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals leading the way. That six day extravaganza of speed gets underway in less than 24 hours, starting at 8:00 AM (EDT) tomorrow. It concludes with final eliminations on Labor Day Monday, as it has for most of it's storied history. This year's edition has full fields in all 17 eliminator categories, with a total of 852 racers competing.

Sandwiched in the middle of that race at Clermont, IN is the conclusion of the Kearney Raceway FUNNY CAR CHAOS event that was rained out after qualifying concluded in early July. That will be accomplished during qualifying at this weekend's FCC event at (Smokin') Mo-Kan Dragway. It's going to be quite a doubleheader to remember, and will almost certainly determine who the contenders are in the race to the series championship. With just one event, at Baton Rouge in mid-September, remaining on the schedule, the pressure will be on all the top runners. The top eight cars in the standings will all be in attendance, and they all have points "in the bank" from qualifying at the Kearney event.

What is going to make this week and next extra busy at Northern Thunder is that we will have BIG Bob Snyder travelling to Asbury, MO to capture all the action from Mo-Kan Dragway. He flew to Maryland last weekend to shoot the FCC event at Budds Creek, MD, flew home on Sunday, then will turn around and make the 1239 mile (2000 km) drive from his southern Arizona base to the race. Thankfully, he'll have his partner and fellow photographer, Ginger, doing the driving while he rests up enroute.

Also making a bit of a trek to an event for this website is our Colorado correspondent, Dale Fackler, as he makes the 1100 mile drive to Indianapolis Raceway Park to provide us with photos from the NHRA U.S. Nationals. Yes, he's going to the "Big Go" for the first time ever, and we get to cover the most iconic drag racing event on the planet for the first time since the 2014 edition. We can hardly wait to see what comes through the email inbox over the next week from both of these top-notch photographers. Stay tuned for all the coverage from both - or actually three - events.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Maryland International Raceway - Budds Creek, MD

After three qualifying sessions there were 30 cars ready to enter eliminations. With four 8-car fields offered, the "D" field had only six entries, necessitating two bye runs in the first round. With the unique FCC "index" system in place, the "B" field mark was set at 3.96, based on top qualifier Larry Higginbotham's 4.164 qualifier. In the "C" field, the mark was set at 4.12 due to Cody Helger's 4.322 best e.t. And in the "D" group it was 4.30, courtesy of Delbert White's 4.507 qualifying pass. One change to the "B,C,D" fields happens in the final round when it's a heads-up race to the finish line with no breakout.

Running without an index was the "A" field, with the eight qualifiers ranging from Jim Gifford, at a track record setting 3.723, down to Paul Conlon at 4.164. With the top three cars deep into the 3-second zone, and a drop-off of two tenths between #3 Melinda King's 3.845 e.t. and #4 Jon Wall at 4.053, there was the possibility of some lopsided outcomes in the first round, but as the very well-worn caveat states: "races are run on the track, NOT on paper".

One final note before we dive into eliminations is that there were TWO "China Syndrome" entries, owned and driven by separate teams: FCC regular Wayne Hofmann, and East Coaster George Ridnauer. And there were two "Nor'Easter" nitro-burning cars, both owned and tuned by Bill Dee, one driven by Mike Smith and the other by Jon Wall. Watching the race video on FLOracing.com left me very confused until I took a close look at the cars, and listened carefully to the announcers.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - Round ONE - "A" Field

(LEFT) Kicking off eliminations with a hard burnout was #6 qualifier, "Nitro" Joe Morrison, in the "Hell Bound" entry. He ran a little quicker than his 4.115 qualifier, stopping the clocks with a consistent 4.094 - 182.13 to advance to the semi-finals.

(RIGHT) In the other lane of that first pairing was #3 qualifier, Melinda Green-King who ran a great 3.845 - 199.55 in her one and only qualifying pass on Friday night. Unfortunately, she was unable to hold the car on the line when she brought the revs up, and rolled through the lights before the tree was activated.

Next up was the "Boston Monkey" of Paul Conlon, starting from the #8 spot on the ladder, and facing the top qualifier in the opening round. Trying to play the giant killer, he tried too hard and failed, shaking the tires hard on the launch, and coasting to a 5.827 - 81.31, making for an early exit from the event.

(LEFT) The #1 qualifier, and track record holder, Jim Gifford whipped his blown fuel "Svengali" to a 3.723 - 208.23 best in qualifying and came into eliminations ready to improve on those incredible numbers. He didn't quite do that in the opening round, but a 3.774 - 205.44 was more than enough to take care of Conlon and move on to the second round.

(RIGHT) Another strong running fuel car, the "Nor'Easter", owned and tuned by Bill Dee, with Mike Smith at the wheel, didn't even get to the starting line before his weekend came to an abrupt conclusion as the car failed to fire. That sent opponent D.J. Cox (not shown) directly to the semis with a very good 3.806 - 205.98 pass in his pocket. That also gave him lane choice over Joe Morrison.

(LEFT) The second "China Syndrome" car in the field, driven by George Ridnauer, qualified strongly in the #4 spot with a 4.111 pass and looked to pick up a little more e.t. in his match with the #5 qualifier.

(RIGHT) That number five qualifier was Jon Wall in the second "Nor'Easter" car (left lane), seen leaving the line while opponent George Ridnauer disappears down track, as he left before the tree came down. When the green came on, Wall left hard, smoked the tires, and shut off to a 6.765 clocking that was more than good enough to move into the next round.

We're not sure who's grinning and hugging Funny Car Chaos major domo Chris Graves, but our correspondent, BIG Bob Snyder, will certainly let us know.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - Round ONE - "B" Field

(LEFT) Coming into the first round in the #7 spot in the "B" bunch, Matt Stambaugh faced an uphill climb in his sharp looking "Generation X" Vega, but did his best, putting down a solid 4.217 - 173.29. However, it wasn't enough to get past opponent Gary Pritchett's (not shown) much better 4.033 - 183.17 winning time.

(RIGHT) Another old school style body, the Vega-bodied "Time Bomb" of Bob Toth faced an even more daunting task, starting from the bottom of the field, and facing a blown fuel car. He improved on his qualifying time, and punched out a 4.225 - 170.58 for the upset win. It came courtesy of a major holeshot: Toth's mediocre .206 light was enough to cover his opponent's nearly comatose .361 reaction time and give him a car length victory.

(LEFT) That sleepy driver, Larry Higginbotham made his best run of the event at 4.118 - 168.37, but it wasn't enough to overcome his tardy launch, and it was the end of the day for the Mustang II-bodied "Sinister Sally" team. The one upside for the team was the tuning help provided at the event by Jake "The Snake" Sanders got them moving in the right direction.

(RIGHT) Launching into another hard burnout was the Dodge Avenger-bodied "China Syndrome" of second generation racer Wayne Hofmann as he prepped for his first round match against the blown fuel car of Michael Tabacco. Hofmann wasn't intimidated, leaving first with a great .025 reaction time and putting down his quickest run of the event, at 4.234 - 168.41 to turn on the winlight.

Coming out on the losing end of the race against Hofmann was the "Pandemic: Nitro Variant" car of North Carolina's Michael Tabacco, as he launched late (.253 r.t.), before being outrun as he slowed from his qualifying best of 4.238 to a losing 4.321 - 179.14 timeslip.

Two views: coming and going, of the beautiful "Shooting Star" Top Alcohol Funny Car of longtime veteran Bill Naves. He qualified in the #3 position in the "B" field with a solid 4.207 - 174.84 and easily advanced to the second round with an early shutoff 4.254 - 149.58 pass. Making it easy was his opponent, Doug Fassl, being unable to appear due to breakage.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - Round ONE - "C" Field

(LEFT) The "C" field consisted mostly of East Coast racers, and provided some new looks to regular followers of Funny Car Chaos. One of the nicer looking entries was the "Temporary Insanity" car of Krista Massarella. She qualified at the bottom of the field with a decent 4.465 - 160.59, and ran near that number with a 4.513 - 158.46, in what became a losing cause.

(RIGHT) Eliminating Ms. Massarella was Cody Helger in his early model Camaro-bodied "Dazed and Confused" car, as he nearly matched his qualifying time with a good 4.338 - 163.49 for the win and a ticket to the semi-finals.

Going really old school was Wade King in his WWII-themed P51 fighter plane paint job on his '57 Chevy-bodied "Big Girl" entry. His race ended when the car broke before getting to the finish line. Taking advantage of his plight was Joe Pirrone in the "Screamin' Eagle" entry (not shown) as he stopped the clocks at 4.338 - 171.97 for the win.

Two views of the colourful "Iron Outlaw", driven by Jami Russell. In the burnout (left photo), it appears there's a track worker crouching and trying to avoid a shower of hot burning rubber. On the right, the car launches into what was the closest race of the day, with his opponent, Justin Mallot (not shown), as both racers left with identical .038 reaction times. At the finish line, Mallot's slightly better 4.350 - 162.53, edged out Russell's very close 4.399 - 162.35 losing effort.

(LEFT) The round closed with Oklahoma's Jordan Ballew putting on his usual show with the early Camaro-bodied "Ballew Thunder", with a big burnout, followed by a series of dry hops. He slowed a little from his 4.433 qualifying e.t., and his 4.512 - 158.09 wasn't enough to turn on the winlight.

(RIGHT) Eliminating Ballew, after his long tow from the Midwest, was Chris Massarella in the "Total Insanity" car with a very good 4.280 - 165.94 pass, initiated with a reaction time of .033 seconds. A winning combination to be sure, and quick enough for lane choice over Joe Pirrone in the semi-final round.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - Round ONE - "D" Field

(LEFT) Just six cars were available for a "D" field, which meant two pairs and two byes in the first round. The round opened with Drew Sweetman" in the "Frantic Ford" tribute car taking the first bye and laying down a decent 4.728 - 155.26 to advance to the next round.

(RIGHT) The '67 Nova-bodied Smoky Bonz Gang car, driven by Andrew Armstrong entered eliminations with a 15-second and 10-second run on his dance card. It looked like a certain first round exit, but luck was in his favour as opponent John Cerchio couldn't fire his car, leaving Armstrong to take a free ride to the second round. The car still refused to cooperate as it barely got to the finish with a 12.279 - 50.18 showing up on the scoreboard.

(LEFT) Another car and driver that had nothing but trouble in qualifying was the Datsun 350Z-bodied "The Raider" of Troy Liebi. When his opponent, Marc Lyon also failed to fire, it opened the door for an automatic win for Liebi. He staged the car, then shut off. With his only run on the boards being a 8.105 - 55.88, it was going to take some serious luck to advance to the final in this admittedly weak "D" field.

(RIGHT) The first round limped to a conclusion with Delbert White taking the other bye run in his "Carolina Outlaw". In fact, everyone who advanced to the second round took a bye run, whether it was scheduled or not. The scoreboards barely lit up when White finally crossed the finish line at 12.298 - 56.78. We could only hope for some side-by-side racing in the semifinal.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - Round TWO - "A" Field

(LEFT) It was a different atmosphere when the second run began under the lights, with two blown alcohol cars running in the first pair, and two blown fuel cars in the second matchup. Leaving first in the alky pair was Joe Morrison (near lane) as he took a slight .094 to .109 reaction time advantage, but couldn't hold it as his 4.110 - 177.21, wasn't close to D.J. Cox's (far lane) excellent 3.799 - 206.02 effort.

(RIGHT) In the blown fuel pairing, Jon Wall (near lane), tried hard with a very good 4.052 - 172.94 as the "Nor'Easter" went silent at the 500' mark. Taking full advantage was Jim Gifford (far lane) as he cranked out a new low e.t. of the meet, and new track record, with a brilliant 3.716 - 207.91 to turn on the winlight and clinch lane choice over Cox in the final round.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - Round TWO - "B" Field

(LEFT) Another great (.030) reaction time, and another good 4.221 - 168.87 was more than enough for Wayne Hofmann (near lane) to advance past the mostly obscured "Time Bomb" in the far lane. Driver Bob Toth ran well, with a 4.364 - 165.31 but it wasn't enough to keep up with Hofmann as he advanced to his second final round of the season.

(RIGHT) Leaving first by a small margin, Bill Naves (near lane), laid down his best run of the event at 4.172 - 167.20, but it wasn't enough to turn on the winlight, as Gary Pritchett (far lane), pushed the "Bunny and The Boys" entry to his quickest run too, nearly dipping into the 3-second zone, with a winning 4.002 - 184.09 to advance to the final and take lane choice over Hofmann.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - Round TWO - "C" Field

(LEFT) The closest race of the event happened next, as Cody Helger (near lane) took a holeshot win over Justin Mallot (almost totally obscured) in the far lane. Helger left first with an .057 reaction, against Mallot's .115 light, then held the lead all the way to the stripe. Helger's 4.290 - 164.85 held up for the half car length win over Mallot's quicker but losing, 4.257 - 166.95 pass.

(RIGHT) Joining Helger in the final would be Chris Massarella (near lane) as "Total Insanity" prevailed when his opponent Joe Pirrone (far lane), broke out with a too-quick 4.091 - 182.40, against the 4.12 index. Massarella's 4.270 -168.11 time was good enough for the win, and good enough for lane choice in the final.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - Round TWO - "D" Field

Four cars went into the semi-finals in the "D" field, after a very disappointing first round. This time around, one car (Troy Liebi) failed to fire, and his opponent (Delbert White) limped into the final with a less than scintillating 11-second clocking. Only one car made a representative run, and that was "Frantic Ford" of Drew Sweetman (near lane), as he quickly dispatched Andrew Amstrong (far lane). The scoreboards read 4.553 - 161.05 for Sweetman and 13.737 - 44.66 for the "Smoky Bonz Gang". In the process, Sweetman took lane choice over White by nearly seven seconds.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - FINAL round - "D" Field

Following Funny Car Chaos tradition, the run order was reversed for the final round, with the slower fields running first. After two rounds of uncompetitive racing, the two final round contestants put on a close side-by-side race, with Drew Sweetman (near lane), stopping the clocks first with a consistent 4.527 - 160.84 for the win. Runnerup was Delbert White (far lane), as he got back into the 4.50's with a close 4.598 - 150.40 in the "Carolina Outlaw".

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - FINAL round - "C" Field

Another close race ensued in the "C" final, with Cody Helger (far lane) lighting the scoreboard first with his best of the event 4.284 - 167.97. Not far behind was Chris Massarella (near lane), with a 4.373 - 165.82 that was unfortunately a tenth slower than his semifinal winning pass.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - FINAL round - "B" Field

With no index in place for the final, Gary Pritchett (far lane) unloaded a 3.964 - 184.40 bomb on Wayne Hofmann in the near lane. The "China Syndrome" tried hard with a best of the weekend 4.192 - 169.23, but it wasn't close to catching the "Bunny and The Boys" entry.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations - FINAL round - "A" Field

And the race that everyone had been waiting for finally arrived. D.J. Cox in his "big show" alky burner in the near lane, against the nitro burning "Svengali" of Jim Gifford in the far lane. Cox took a small lead on the launch, reacting quicker with an .063 to .109 light, and made his best run of the event, a 3.741 - 207.62 stand up for the win. In the losing cause, Gifford set another new track record and another new low e.t. of the meet, at 3.708 - 202.12. Gifford did hold the lead as they neared the lights, but the engine gave up in a flash of flame and smoke at the finish line as evidenced by his slower mph reading.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Winners Circle - "D" Field

It was a very successful event for the Mustang II-bodied "Frantic Ford" tribute car, as Drew Sweetman and his team went all the way to the winners circle. Following a solid Friday night pass of 4.579 - 161.63 that placed them #19 on the ladder, and a spot in the middle of the "C" field, they parked the car until eliminations began. By then, Sweetman had dropped to #26 on the list, near the top of the "D" field.

That earned them a first round bye, which they took with their slowest run of the event, a 4.728 - 155.26 that put them in the semifinal. In that round, they faced Andrew Armstrong, and easily dispatched him with a 4.553 - 161.05 to advance to the final. Sweetman's final round opponent, Delbert White, gave him a competitive race, but Sweetman prevailed with a winning 4.527 - 160.84 to take the trophy and the cash. A well earned result for his first appearance in a Funny Car Chaos race.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Winners Circle - "C" Field

The '69 Camaro-bodied "Dazed and Confused" Funny Car of the Helger brothers ran a series of consistently quick runs to take the "C" field win. With Cody Helger at the controls they made six runs in total, including five on Saturday. The first four runs, three in qualifying, and the first round of eliminations were tightly grouped between 4.322 - 163.73 and 4.344 - 163.41, showing bracket racer consistency. Friday night's effort placed them #12 on the ladder, but they had slipped to #17, the top of the "C" field, when qualifying concluded on Saturday afternoon.

Their three winning runs in eliminations were all against good opponents, including the husband and wife "Insanity" team of Chris and Krista Massarella. He took out Krista in the first round with his slowest run of eliminations, a 4.338 - 163.49, then stepped up to a 4.290 - 164.85 to take a narrow holeshot win over Justin Mallot in the semifinal. Saving the best for last, Cody cranked out his best run of the weekend at 4.284 - 167.97 to take a close win over Chris Massarella and capture the event title.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Winners Circle - "B" Field

Editor's NOTE: Before I started writing this paragraph, I'd assumed that the "Bunny and The Boys" team was a tribute to the late, great Bunny Burkett. That was a serious mistake, as the team that runs the car is so much more. It's a story of an ever-evolving racing team that's been in existence for more than 50 years, and is still a competitive force, with their latest accomplshment being a win at a Funny Car Chaos event. Read the whole story at the Bunny Burkett website.

The team's weekend started as part of the last pair down the track on Friday night, with driver Gary "L'il Bear" Pritchett running alongside team member Matt Stambaugh. Pritchett laid down a very good 4.173 - 174.14 to hold the #4 spot at the conclusion of the session. That was followed up with a shaky 7-second run on Saturday morning, before they got back on track with a 4.166 - 152.16 that ultimately placed them #10 in the order, near the top of the "B" field.

Entering eliminations with a 3.96 index to contend with, they dialled in some extra horsepower for the first round and rang up a 4.033 - 183.17 to take out Stambaugh and advance to the semifinal. That saw them facing a tough opponent (Bill Naves), but an oh-so-close to the 3's, and very close to the index, pass resulted in a 4.002 - 184.09 winning run. In the final, they overcame a Wayne Hofmann holeshot, and drove around him before the 330' timers, lighting up the scoreboards with their best run of the weekend, a great 3.964 - 184.40 for the event win, and a very fitting end to their weekend.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Winners Circle - "A" Field

With an NHRA Lucas Oil Series Eastern Regional running on the same weekend at New England Dragway, it was somewhat surprising to see the "DXI Construction" team of D.J. Cox appear at this event. On the other hand, with Cox not in a position to contend for the NHRA championship this year, and deep roots in the Maryland area, it was a wise decision on his part to participate, both with event sponsorship and on the track with his Top Alcohol Funny Car.

When he pulled up to the starting line on Friday night, with the quickest run on the boards at that point being a 4.053, it was expected that he would shoot to the top of the pile and rack up a run deep into the 3's at more than 200 mph. It didn't happen as he smoked the tires immediately and shut off to a 6-second pass that placed him #23 on the list. Saturday morning's second qualifying session wasn't much better as he could only muster a 5.357 as smoke and shake set in early again. Down to his last shot to move out of the "D" field, the car responded with a very good 3.768 - 206.13 that moved him all the way to the #2 qualifying spot going into the first round.

From there on it was clear sailing, as a series of 3-second runs at more than 200 mph resulted. His slowest run of the day, a 3.806 - 205.98 came in the opening round on a bye run when Mike Smith's car failed to fire. Then a slightly quicker 3.799 - 206.03 took out Joe Morrison in the semi-final, in what was a fairly close race for the first few hundred feet. Going into the final against a formidable opponent in Jim Gifford's nitro burning monster, D.J. left on "Svengali" by five hundredths, then kept the lead to the finish line for the holeshot win with his best run of the event, 3.741 - 207.62. It was a tremendous final round clash and a very fitting way to close out the first Funny Car Chaos race on the East Coast.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Maryland International Raceway - Budds Creek, MD

We're not sure why it was decided to run just one round of qualifying on Friday, in place of the usual two sessions, but with some inclement weather closing in on the track in the evening, it was certainly the right decision. Saturday dawned with sunny skies, and the second of three qualifiers went off with 23 cars appearing in the staging lanes. There was certainly some shuffling of the qualifying charts as quite a few racers stepped up their performance, while several made their first pass of the weekend. Captions will follow later today. Stay tuned!

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #2

(LEFT) Relaxing in the staging lanes before the second qualifying session started, were Jordan Ballew and the "Ballew Crew". Note the list of names on the side of the car; they all contributed to make the long tow from Oklahoma possible for this team that has only missed one FCC event since it's inception.

(RIGHT) Making her first attempt after skipping Friday's qualifying session, Krista Massarella in the well presented "Temporary Insanity" Monza laid down a decent 4.465 - 160.59 to slot into the #19 spot on the ladder.

(LEFT) Running alongside Massarella, the second "China Syndrome" car, driven by George Ridnauer followed up his Friday night 4.260 pass, with a much improved 4.111 - 181.08 to move up to the #5 spot in the middle of the "A" field.

(RIGHT) After making a troubled 8-second run on Friday, the 55 Chevy "Big Girl", driven by Wade King rebounded in a big way with a solid 4.392 - 165.94 to climb from near the bottom of the qualifying list to the middle of the "C" field, where he ended up in the #22 position.

(LEFT) With a 4.374 on the books from the first qualifier, Jami Russell did a hard burnout in the Mustang-bodied "Iron Outlaw", before laying down a consistent, but slightly slower, 4.408 - 162.43 pass. Starting the session at the bottom of the "B" field in the #16 position, he fell to #21 in the final order, in the middle of the "C" field going into eliminations.

(RIGHT) Here's another hard burnout, which was one of the over-riding elements of this event, as everyone did some serious pre-run rubber burning. Doing the deed this time was Bob Toth in his Vega-bodied "Time Bomb". He improved from Friday's 4.364 to a 4.296 - 172.08 that landed him in the #16 spot, at the bottom of the "B" field. Unfortunately, that earned him a first round matchup with the blown fuel car of Larry Higginbotham.

(LEFT) Running in the lane opposite to Toth, the "Wildly Disturbed" Mustang of Doug Fassl slowly slightly from his Friday 4.271 clocking, stopping the timers at 4.312 - 164.05 on this run. By the time the second session ended, he had dropped from #8 (bottom of the "A" field) to #14 (lower half of the "B" field) on the list.

(RIGHT) The "Boston Monkey" came into this round in the #10 spot with a 4.297 in his first qualifier, and stepped up more than a tenth to a very good 4.176 - 178.87 to grab a rung on the "A" field ladder.

(LEFT) The "Pandemic: Nitro Variant" of Michael Tabacco picked up a bunch from his earlier 4.405 pass, improving to a solid 4.238 - 178.10 to move up to the #10 spot, near the top of the "B" field.

(RIGHT) With Jake Sanders making the tuning calls, Larry Higginbotham was looking for a much better result on his second qualifying run. He did cut nearly a second and a half from his Friday 5.937 numbers, carding a 4.499 - 154.11. The low speed indicated that he was off the throttle early and nowhere the potential it showed in the first 330 feet of the run.

(LEFT) This picture pretty much sums up Troy Liebi's first qualifying pass. The Datsun Z-bodied "Raider" had all sorts of trouble on the launch, with tire shake pushing him out of the groove and bouncing the rear tires off the track. It resulted in a very early shutoff, as he coasted to a 8.105 - 55.88 and a spot near the bottom of the "D" field.

(RIGHT) Another swing, another miss, as D.J. Cox lit up the tires just past the 60' mark, before stopping the clocks at 5.257 - 129.31. For a racer that's won NHRA national events, it had to be a tough pill to swallow as the DXI team was down to one final chance to qualify higher than the "C" field.

(LEFT) Laying down a great burnout, with the Stars and Stripes flying high above the roof, Gary "L'il Bear" Pritchett hoped to get back into the top of the "A" field after falling to #6 before this run. He ran into trouble early however, shutting down to a 7.045 - 69.54 as he failed to gain ground.

(RIGHT) Heating the hides before his first shot at qualifying one of Bill Dee's "Nor'Easter" entries, Mike Smith prepared to make a statement to the competition.

(LEFT) Joining the FCC circuit at the mid-point of the season, Justin Mallot has quickly established a name for himself with his beautifully presented 57-Chevy. He picked up three thousandths over his Friday 4.368, improving to a 4.365 - 162.43, but slipped back a few spots to #18 on the overall list, near the top of the "C" field.

(RIGHT) Leaving the line hard, but behind Justin Mallot (near lane, mostly obscured) Mike Smith made his first shot at the timers count, posting a 4.125 e.t., with a slightly early shutoff yielding a 164.07 speed. The run put him in the #6 position, solidly in the middle of the "A" field.

The saying "saving the best for last" certainly didn't apply to this qualifying pass by Andrew Armstrong in the '67 Nova-bodied "Smoky Bonz Gang". They did cut five seconds off his 15-second effort of Friday night, but a 10.017 - 73.79 was absolutely nothing to brag about. The car exhibited the same stumbling launch, and never got the revs up or smoothed out. Clearly, this team needs to do some serious testing before running in competition again.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

There weren't very many cars in the staging lanes for the final qualifying session, with the first round of eliminations looming in just two hours, but nine drivers decided to make an attempt to improve their positions. Leading off was Cody Helger who didn't really need to move up from his position near the top of the "C" field, but he made a consistent, and slightly slower 4.344 - 163.41 to close his qualifying ledger.

(LEFT) Sitting near the bottom of the "D" field, the unique "Whooppee Car" of Marc Lyon hoped to improve on their second session 4.858 - 142.55 pass. The car never really got the revs up, lumbering down the track to a slightly improved e.t. at 4.851 that left him in the #28 spot, in the middle of the "D" field.

(RIGHT) With the tires wrinkling on the hard launch, Larry Higginbotham finally got the run he'd been looking for on his third attempt. The numbers were very good as a 4.164 - 179.28 came up on the scoreboard, launching him all the way from the bottom of the "C" field (#24) to the top (#9) of the "B" field. Quite a turnaround in a span of less than 24 hours.

(LEFT) Hoping that his third time would be the "charm", D.J. Cox switched to the left lane after two abortive attempts in the right lane. He found the correct combination of power and clutch this time, rocketing up the charts to a #2 qualifying 3.768 - 206.13 timeslip. The run guaranteed him lane choice, and a serious e.t. advantage over his first round opponent.

(RIGHT) Another team that was looking for some improvement, the "Bunny and The Boys" gang, instead showed some consistency as a 4.166 at only 152.16 showed up on the timers. With an early shutoff, it proved there was more to be found for eliminations. With a good spot near the top of the "B" field, in the #10 position, Gary Pritchett was looking to go some rounds in eliminations.

(LEFT) Looking to finish qualifying on an up note, after a "no time recorded" on Friday night, followed by a pedalling 5.507 in the second session, Delbert White needed to lay down a competitive time before going into eliminations. He nearly managed to vault into the "C" field, but his 4.507 - 161.69 was enough to move to the top of the "D" field and give him a bye run in the first round.

(RIGHT) The last car down the track in qualifying was the "Must Be Nice" '57 Chevy, and it rang up another slight improvement in performance. Justin Mallot made three runs in qualifying, starting with a 4.368 on Friday, then a 4.365 earlier on Saturday, and finishing with a 4.356 - 162.63 on this run. Very consistent runs that bode well for his chances in eliminations, as he started from the middle of the "C" field in the #20 position.

Of course there's Jet Cars; this time it's of the Funny variety. In the near lane, it's George Whiteman III in the "Black Pearl" '69 Camaro, and on the far side, it's George Douthit in the '65 Mustang-bodied "Quartermaster".

Three views of the Graves family "relaxing" in the control tower. On the left is the ever-photogenic Levi Graves, who's not quite 18 months old. With him in the left photo is proud papa Chris, and in the photo on the right, his very proud mama Tera. In the center photo, it's Levi himself, relishing the spotlight from Bob Snyder's camera.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Maryland International Raceway - Budds Creek, MD

It took a little longer than planned, but we've got all the pictiures from the first round of qualifying on Friday night. Despite a pre-entry list that numbered 40 cars, only 27 of the 30 cars that made it through the gates ran on Friday night. Info from our photographer, Bob Snyder, indicated that several racers had damaged equipment, while others just didn't show up. However, the on track action was very entertaining for the sparse audience. Hopefully, the spectator numbers will increase for Saturday's two rounds of qualifying and three rounds of eliminations.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) Leading off the session was Joe Morrison (near lane) in the "Hell Bound" car, facing off against veteran Larry Higginbotham in the blown fuel "Sinister Sally" Mustang. Despite the horsepower disadvantage, Champaney stopped the clocks first with a 4.906 - 117.00, while Higginbotham trailed with a disappointing 5.937 - 111.51 pass.

(RIGHT) Burning out was the very familiar "China Syndrome" Dodge of Connecticut's "Wayne Hofmann" as he continued to attend every race on the FCC schedule in his second season of competition on the circuit.

(LEFT) Facing Hofmann in this matchup was Delbert White in his sinister looking "Carolina Outlaw" as he made his Funny Car Chaos debut.

(RIGHT) When the lights came on, Wayne Hofmann (far lane) launched second but finished first, taking the early pole position with a strong 4.249 - 168.58 pass from his big-block Chevy powered car. In the near lane, Delbert White failed to get a timeslip as he left the line before the tree was activated.

(LEFT) A good looking '68 Camaro body covers the "Dazed and Confused" entry of Cody Helger. His first pass was a good one, timing in at 4.327 - 164.39, and grabbing the #12 spot on the qualifying sheet.

(RIGHT) The second "China Syndrome" entry, this one driven by George Ridnauer laid down a great run, landing in the #7 position, in the "A" field, with a 4.260 - 173.49 timeslip.

(LEFT) Here's the two racers at the starting line, with Cody Helger in the near lane, and George Ridnauer on the far side.

(RIGHT) Following two pairs of alcohol burners, the second blown fuel car of the night, one of the "Nor'Easter" cars, this one driven by Jon Wall laid down a loud burnout.

(LEFT) In the other lane, the "Total Insanity" Monza of Chris Massarella matched Wall for tire smoke, but with a little less loud from the pipes.

(RIGHT) When the ambers flashed, Massarella (near lane) pounded out a 4.324 - 165.01, while Wall (far lane) went all the way to the top with the quickest run of the session - to that point - with a great 4.053 - 159.83. If he'd kept the throttle open all the way to the 660' mark, it could have been a 3-second run. At the end of the session, the run was still good enough to hold the #3 spot on the list.

(LEFT) Laying down some serious smoke, the Firebird-bodied "Screamin' Eagle" of Joe Pirrone prepared to assault the timers.

(RIGHT) Lining up next to Pirrone was John Cerchio (far lane) in his "War Path" entry. Pirrone got to the finish line first with a solid 4.342 - 170.21, good for #13, while Cerchio was a litle off-pace with a 4.725 - 157.82, landing in the #20 position on the qualifying sheet.

(LEFT) Everyone expected to see D.J. Cox in his NHRA Top Alcohol car go right to the top of the leader board, based on his many years of racing and Top Ten finishes in the national standings. On a well-prepped track like Maryland International Raceway a new track record from him was almost guaranteed.

(RIGHT) Running alongside Cox was Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos regular Michael Tabacco, with his "Pandemic: Nitro Variant" entry, shown here warming the tires.

(LEFT) Leaving first was D.J. Cox (near lane), but he smoked the tires as hard on the launch as he did on the burnout. Off the throttle very quickly, he coasted through the lights at 6.150 - 124.64 to sit near the bottom of the list in the #23 spot. In the far lane, Michael Tabacco and he had a much better result as his nitro burner stopped the timers at 4.405 - 177.77, good enough for a spot (#17) at the top of the "C" field.

(RIGHT) Another first time FCC competitor, Paul Conlon in his colourful "Boston Monkey" entry joined the smoke show as everyone laid down a good burnout.

(LEFT) When the lights flashed, Conlon (near lane) ran hard to the finish line with a good 4.297 - 175.87 coming up on the scoreboard, placing him #10 at the end of the round. In the far lane, Marc Lyon was off the pedal early with a 6.895 - 68.31 result, leaving him #24 on the qualifying sheet.

(RIGHT) Another of the Mustang-bodied entries, this one the "Iron Outlaw", driven by Jami Russell burned out before his run.

(LEFT) With a paint scheme recalling a famous team from the early 1970's, Drew Sweetman brought out the Mustang II-bodied "Frantic Ford" for his first race with the Chaos crew.

(RIGHT) Sweetman (near lane) ran well, clocking a 4.579 - 161.63 to snag the #19 spot provisionally, while in the far lane, Jami Russell made a better run at to take the #16 spot, at the bottom of the "B" field.

(LEFT) Another full-on Top Alcohol Funny Car came out next, with Melinda Green-King burning out in her "MGK Motorsports" entry. With many successful NHRA national and regional event appearances on her resume, it was expected that she would be the first into the 3's in this session.

(RIGHT) Lining up with Drew Sweetman in the far lane, Melinda left the "Smoky Bonz Gang" Nova quickly behind and powered down track to a 3.845 - 199.55 to take the top spot in the order. No fuss, no muss, just a solid pass by a veteran racer.

(LEFT) Another NHRA Top Alcohol racer, Bill Naves (near lane) made a decent pass in his "Shooting Star", stopping the clocks with a 4.207 - 174.84. That placed him #3 on the list, and at the end of the session, he sat in the middle of the "A" field in the #5 position. In the far lane, Wade King ran into trouble with the "Big Girl" '55 Chevy and shut down to an 8-second e.t.

(RIGHT) Leaving first in his "Time Bomb" Vega was Bob Toth (near lane), with the "Ballew Thunder" Camaro of Oklahoma's Jordan Ballew in hot pursuit. Despite shutting off at the 500' mark, Toth stopped the clocks first with a 4.364 - 141.05, while Ballew wasn't far behind at 4.433 - 159.78. Ballew sat near the top of the "C" field at the end of the session, while Toth was up in the "B" group.

(LEFT) Making some serious noise was the nitro burning "Svengali", driven by Jim Gifford, preparing the tires for his assault on the track.

(RIGHT) Paired up with Doug Fassl (far lane) in the "Wildly Disturbed" entry, Gifford cut the power a little early, turning a 3.903 at 181.28 mph, to slot into the #2 spot, behind Melinda Green-King. Fassl wasn't too far behind as he crossed the stripe at 4.271 - 163.39 to hold down the bump spot in the "A" field.

(LEFT) Burning out in style, Gary Pritchett held the flag high and rippling in the breeze as the "Bunny and The Boys" entry lit up the tires and the crowd.

(RIGHT) Paired with good friend and teammate Matt Stambaugh (far lane), Pritchett put down a very good 4.173 - 174.414 that was good enough for the #4 spot in the middle of the "A" field. Stambaugh, meanwhile, pushed the "Generation X" to a 4.283 - 169.44, placing him #9, at the top of the "B" field.

The first qualifying session closed with Justin Mallot in his beautiful '57 Chevy making a solid 4.368 - 162.02 pass in the "Must Be Nice". That put him #15 on the list, near the bottom of the "B" field.

In all, 27 cars made an attempt, with 26 of them receiving an elapsed time. The top two runners, Melinda King and Jim Gifford were in the 3-second range, while the next 19 cars clocked in the 4's. With two more qualifying sessions scheduled for Saturday, it was expected that several more cars were dip into the 3's, and the balance of the cars would be solidly in the 4-second zone.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS hits the East Coast

The next race on the FCC schedule begins in just a few hours at a location new to the circuit. Maryland International Raceway (Budds Creek, MD) is hosting what will be the largest East Coast Funny Car race in nearly 50 years. Nearly 40 cars are pre-entered, with ten of them being series regular, joined with a host of cars never seen outside of the East and Southeast parts of the country. Our intrepid photographer, BIG Bob Snyder arrived on Wednesday and will be capturing all the action tonight and tomorrow. We hope to have full coverage of the event available by Monday.

Project 'Catch-Up" launches

After more than two weeks of "radio silence", we're back in action at Northern Thunder. A combination of circumstances conspired to keep me away from the keyboard until today, but we've got four full weeks of uninterrupted time to get things rolling here again. First up is to complete the Nightfire Nationals coverage, then start filling in the blanks (lack of captions and details) for the last few Funny Car Chaos races.

While that is happening, we've got incoming photos, courtesy of "Big" Bob Snyder" from this weekend's first East Coast FCC event at Maryland International Raceway (Budds Creek, MD), followed by next weekend's 6th annual Funny Car Chaos event at (Smokin') Mo-Kan Dragway (Asbury, MO). We're not sure if Bob will fly home from Maryland, then drive back to Missouri, but in any event, the plan is for him to cover both races for Northern Thunder.

And on that same Labor Day weekend, there's a rather big race happening in Clermont, IN. It's the 69th annual Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. That's quite a mouthful of titles for what is usually just shortened to "Indy". We're taking a special interest in that race this year as our Colorado correspondent, Dale Fackler will be on hand to (hopefully) provide some great photos from a truly iconic event.

That's all for this morning; now it's time to get to work on those Boise photos. Stay tuned!

52nd annual NIGHTFIRE NATIONALS presented by BI-MART

All we can report today is that we made it home late last night from our Boise expedition. Twelve hours of driving through sometimes heavy rain, an hour and a half in a 10-mile long traffic jam on I-90. Then avoiding a shorter (only 3-mile) lineup at the exit to W-18, which caused us to join the afternoon rush hour parking lot known as the I-405, before fighting our way through the kamikaze commuters on the I-5. After fighting my way through that mess, it was clear sailing... almost to Port Angeles, but one more obstacle remained to be conquered. A serious traffic accident had blocked the W-101 in both directions for a considerable period of time before traffic started moving north (thankfully, my direction of travel), but the lineup of southbound cars and trucks seemed to stretch halfway to Port Angeles. When I finally arrived there, I was just in time to catch the last ferry to Victoria and reached home in Beecher Bay just after midnight. 15 hours of driving and riding made for one long frustrating, but eventually rewarding day when I was able to fall into bed and get my first full night's sleep of the past week.

So today has been a catchup day of many odds and ends, but unfortunately, almost none of them included going through the vast majority of photos from three days at the Nightfire Nationals. That's going to take a week or more to finish, but it will get done. Bit by bit, I'll fill in the blanks and add photos to the verbiage heavy content currently on this page. Remember: stay tuned and keep hitting refresh/reload each time you visit the page.

The latest update as of August 7, 2023

52nd annual NIGHTFIRE NATIONALS presented by BI-MART

It was one very long day yesterday, as the PRO eliminations finished just after 8:00 pm. The 90 minute rain and drying delay pushed the program back considerably, then a few oil downs, a major crash involving a Funny Car and a sportsman crash late in the afternoon pushed the finish well into the early evening. When we left the facility at 8:30 pm, there were sportsman eliminations still going but after three long days and nights it was time to take our leave.

Following a frustrating Friday dealing with my Nikon D300S at a race for the first time in five years, things got better throughout the weekend. Without the benefit of a large desktop monitor to get a really good look at the photos, there won't be any posted until tomorrow, and it will take most of the week to fill in all the gaps in that part of our coverage.

With the clock ticking and a deadline to make the last ferry from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC, and get home tonight, we've got to keep this morning's report short. Much more detail and a full event coverage for the "Features" page will follow as time permits. For now, we've only got time for a quick recap of yesterday's action.

AA/FUEL DRAGSTER

Six of the eight qualifiers were locked into the 5.80-zone, from Tyler Hester on top at 5.813 down to Bryan Hall in the #6 spot at 5.877. The last two cars in the field were well below those numbers, but the old adage reads "anything can happen" when eliminations start. It only takes a small error for the quickest car to fall against a much slower opponent.

Surprisingly, there were only two relatively close races in the first round, despite the small gaps between them in qualifying. However, there were some great performances, with defending event champion Bret Williamson in the full bodied "Forever Young" car leading the way with a low e.t. of the meet 5.763 - 253.04 to take a convincing win over the trailing 5.97 - 229.20 effort of Adam Sorokin. The elder statesman 0f the class, 79-year old Jim Murphy, nearly matched Williamson's e.t. with a very good 5.808 - 258.67 pass, to set a new top speed of the meet. The round closed with defending series champion, and current points leader, Tyler Hilton pounding out the best run of the weekend for the "Great Expectations II" team, a 5.779 - 256.16 to advance to the semi-finals.

The semis opened with a bit of an upset, as Jim Murphy slowed slightly to a 5.898 - 248.93 to turn on the winlight, as Williamson started smoking the tires at half track, pedaled, then started heading for the guardwall before shutting off. In the other pairing, Tyler Hilton earned his spot in the final with a convincing and consistent 5.806 - 253.28 run against #1 qualifier Tyler Hester, who smoked the tires, pedaled, then had the motor expire in a cloud of smoke.

The final round was delayed by a few hiccups in the program, but when they finally pulled up behind the starting line at 7:15, both teams were ready for a great race to cap off their weekend. Jim Murphy left first, by a margin of .015, but finished second by a little more than a car length, as his engine started going away on the top end. He stopped the clocks at 5.820 - 232.23, while Tyler Hilton kept all the candles lit to the finish line enroute to a new low e.t. of the meet 5.734 - 257.38. Hilton's win helped pad his lead in the NHRA Heritage Series points standings, with just two races left in the season.

It's Jim Murphy (near lane) in his "WW II" entry against Tyler Hilton in the "Great Expectations II" (far lane)

AA/FUNNY CAR

After two days of hard fought qualifying, the quickest eight cars squared off for a real battle royale to decide the Nightfire champion. With only one very glaring exception, the higher qualified cars won in the opening round. That exception was #1 qualifier - by a bunch - James Day, falling to the #8 qualifier, Ryan Horan. And it wasn't even close as Horan kept improving, nearly bettering his qualifying e.t. by a tenth of a second, with a great 5.737 - 254.47 lighting up the scoreboards. Day struggled to a 6-second early shutoff pass as the engine expired and left a trail of parts and oil on the track which resulted in a rather lengthy cleanup.

The other winners in the round ranged from multi-time defending series champion Bobby Cottrell, with an excellent 5.696 - 255.68, to Kamaka Pocock's almost as quick 5.711 - 255.37 close win over Mike Peck's very good 5.736 - 255.43 effort. And not to be forgotten, the round opened with Geoff Monise putting down a 5.762 - 254.09 in the "Quarter Pounder" to advance to the semifinals.

The competition got even tighter in the second round, as Kamaka Pocock continued his winning ways in Don Nelson's "California Hustler", eking out a barely half car length win over Ryan Horan. Pocock left first by a .022 margin, and stopped the clocks first with a winning 5.788 - 241.80 over Horan's oh-so-close 5.790 - 247.52 effort. The other pairing was decided on the starting line, as Bobby Cottrell got a big jump on Geoff Monise, with .069 to .144 reaction times, that made his slower 5.716 - 255.48 the winning number against Monise's quicker but later 5.682 - 253.85 low e.t of eliminations effort.

The final round was over almost before it started, as Bobby Cottrell's signature throttle whack as he pulled into stage must have disrupted the concentration of opponent Kamaka Pocock. The starter had barely flipped the switch before Pocock launched with a -.368 redlight, giving the automatic win to Cottrell's consistent 5.723 - 252.99. On Pocock's scoreboard a 5.641 - 248.71 appeared, but the time was ruled invalid as it was determined to be created with a rear wheel start. The win for Cottrell in the "Austin & O'Brien" Camaro increased their lead in the Heritage Series standings substantially as closest pursuer, Tim Boychuk, fell in the first round.

It's Geoff Monise in the "Quarter Pounder" in the near lane, versus Bobby Cottrell in the "Bardahl Special" in the far lane

AA/FUEL ALTERED

With just two qualifying sessions, instead of three as the other fuel cars received, the altereds had no chance to sneak up on a tuneup and had to be ready to run right out of the trailer. Only one of the serious players failed to get down the track in Friday's opening session, but Keith Wilson took the "Witch Doctor" to the top - actually over the top - of the charts with his awesome 5.900 - 254.04 blast on Saturday evening. With the modified 6.00-index rule in effect, his e.t. became a 6.100, placing him #2 on the ladder going into Sunday's eliminations.

Wilson was in the first pair out on Sunday and tickled the "hard" 6.000-index (in other words: run under that number and you're OUT), with an incredible 6.004 - 249.95 to show everyone that he was ready to run roughshod over the field. The #3 qualifier, Johnny West received a bye in the next match when scheduled opponent, Cory Lee, was unable to make the call after the "Sheepherder" chassis broke in the final qualifying session. That race was followed by a very close duel that saw Mark Whynaught in the "Nitro Mamba" take a holeshot win by just two hundredths of a second over second generation racer Dylan Winefsky in the Arizona-based "Nitro Moose" '32 Bantam roadster.

The round closed with first alternate Shawn Callen in the iconic "High Heaven" taking the spot of low qualifier Vince Karstetter who ventilated both sides of the block in Saturday night's qualifying session (see below). Unfortunately, Callen was unable to get past Jason Pettit's 6.246 - 228.54 pass, as the "Hellfire II" advanced to the semifinals.

The semifinal opened with another bye run for Johnny West in his "Plan A" '23 T when Keith Wilson suffered engine damage in the in the opening round. While servicing the car, the crew found a handful of needle bearings in the pan and decided to not risk running again. West didn't take it easy as he kept the pedal down to the 1200' mark before clicking it to a 6.168 - 229.47 to earn his spot in the final. Remember what we wrote about the 6.00-index? Well, Mark Whynaught gambled with it and lost, breaking out with a great 5.987 - 231.71 clocking, as Jason Pettit took full advantage with a decent 6.301 - 221.74 timeslip.

However, as expected, West closed out the final by taking a convincing 6.156 - 233.03 win over Pettit's slowing 6.424 - 203.74 effort. West's string of runs ranged from a 6.155 and 6.119 in qualifying to a 6.078, 6.168, and 6.156 during eliminations. Amazing consistency for a AA/Fuel Altered and a true testament to a man that's spent half a century fine tuning his performances to remain competitive in an increasingly expensive sport.

Here's Johnny West pulling into the staging beams in his "Plan A" 23 'T' roadster in the final round

52nd annual NIGHTFIRE NATIONALS presented by BI-MART

It's been quite a weekend at Firebird Raceways, with two days of qualifying before a full house on Friday night and an overflow crowd last night. Every seat in the grandstands was full, every fence saw spectators lined up two deep, the pits were full, and it was an absolutely rocking time for everyone in attendance. When you can gather 32 supercharged, nitromethane burning monsters in one place under good weather conditions, with a perfectly prepared track surface, then magic is in the offing.

And it was indeed magical as all three PRO classes saw the qualified fields tighten up, with nearly every pair of cars down the track shuffling the deck. In AA/Fuel dragster, six of the eight cars ran in the 5.8-second zone, led by Friday's top qualifier, Tyler Hester in the "Overtime Special", as his 5.813 - 234.21 was never topped in yesterday's two qualifying sessions. However, below him the field tightened considerably, and two racers ran well over 250 mph, with Shawn Van Horn in the "Titan Engineering" entry setting Top Speed of the meet at 257.73 mph..

At the other end of the scale, the underdog team from Victoria, BC recovered from their Friday night problems and made a decent half track pass in the afternoon session to get safely into the field. In the evening session however, the car got loose early, forcing "Flyin" Phil Ruskowski to get off the loud pedal in the small-block Chevy powered "Xibitionist". They've got a tough task ahead of them today as they face the #1 qualifier in the first round of eliminations.

The AA/Funny Cars put on a spectacular show in both qualifying sessions on Saturday, with one car, Drew Austin's "PRO-Max", literally sawing their Boss 429 Ford block in half and forcing them into a major thrash to make the evening's final qualifying session. With a 5.94 - 222.99 best, they were just outside the 8-car field and needed to find some extra performance in a hurry.

The final qualifying session for the floppers featured an added attraction as the finalists from the season opening Ignitor event, which was rained out, met to start the session. Adding some serious drama to the pairing, neither Drew Austin or Jim Maroney were qualified in the Nightfire field. It was a close race, with Austin turning on the winlight with a great 5.879 - 243.06 over Maroney's close, but losing, 5.964 - 243.08 effort. That left Maroney outside the field, put Austin into the #7 spot, and bumped Kamaka Pocock's 5.889 out of the show.

Two pairs later, Ryan Horan advanced from the #13 spot to #5 with his best pass of the weekend, a 5.832 - 248.66, that pushed Derrick Moreira down to the #9 spot, despite his very good 5.874 - 238.22 run on Friday. Running in the next pairing, Moreira tried his best in his "Nitro Junkies", but his 5.96 - 233.09 fell well short of qualifying. In the next pairing, Geoff Monise, who was on the bump spot with his earlier 5.832, managed to move up in the field with an excellent 5.761 - 248.52 to climb the ladder to the #3 spot. Running alongside him was Kamaka Pocock, who clawed his way back into the qualified field with a last ditch 5.782 at a booming 253.18 to vault from #9 to #4 on the list.

The bump spot which had been a solid 5.936 (Jim Maroney) at the start of the session was now down to 5.832 (Ryan Horan), with the first three alternates in the 5-second zone, and two more right behind in the very low 6's. The last two pairs were already qualified but Bobby Cottrell, in the "Bardahl" Camaro, nearly matched his #2 qualifying 5.724 e.t. with an almost identical 5.72 but at a slightly better speed of 255.10 mph.

Then it was on to the AA/Fuel Altereds to close the competition portion of the evening. With ten cars in the pits, and just eight spots for Sunday's eliminations it was expected there would be some bumping and shifting of positions, Coming into their second (final) qualifying session, the bump spot was a soft 6.787, but it was almost certain to fall before the evening ended. The first pair down the track showed the fans just what fuel altered racing is famous for, as Cory Lee in the "Sheepherder" got very loose before the 330' timers, and crossed into opponent Johnny West's lane, fortunately behind West, as the "Plan A" 23 'T' thundered to a 6.119 239.06, while Lee idled down behind him.

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have to write this report this morning, as it's time to hit the road to the track for day three of the Nightfire Nationals. We'll finish the story and bring you everything we can from today's action late(r) this evening, Stay tuned!

52nd annual NIGHTFIRE NATIONALS presented by BI-MART

Day one of the event is in the books, and what a day it was. Despite a few weather hiccups, with rain in the morning, and for a short time in the afternoon, the program went on as scheduled, with a few minor alterations. PRO qualifying, starting shortly after 8:00 pn, was the highlight of the day and the racers did their best to entertain an almost full house of fans. The AA/Fuel Dragsters showed some serious horsepower, with the top three qualifiers in the 5.80`s, led by Californian Tyler Hester in the "Overtime Special" with a very strong 5.813 - 234.21 pass. Best speed of the round was posted by the long distance travelers from Ohio, defending series champions, the "Great Expectations II" team, with Tyler Hilton driving, and lighting up the scoreboards with a 239.21 speed.

The highlight, or lowlight, depending on how you view it, was multi-time series champion Jim Murphy in his "WW II", as he ran hard to the 330' mark before the car got waaay out of shape, up on three wheels (or one as was seen by some), and swinging from the centerline to the wall, but not crossing the line or hitting the guardwall, as he somehow saved the car for Saturday's next qualifying session. Possibly 50+ years of experience in nitro-burning Funny Cars and dragsters played a major part in that outcome.

Seven of the eight dragsters in attendance made qualifying passes, as Canada's hope, Phil Ruskowski, in the small-block Chevy powered "Xibitionist" entry ran into trouble in the pits when they tried to warm the car up. It ran fine and sounded great in their earlier warmup, but the team found some of the new parts installed after their "Kentucky Fried Canadian" adventure at the previous Heritage Series race in Bowling Green, KY, weren't working well together. When this reporter left the track at 11:30 last night, Phil and his faithful crew were still working on modifying some valvetrain parts in an attempt to salvage their weekend.

After a short break from the fuel racing that allowed the sportsman classes to run, the AA/Funny Cars took center stage. With 14 cars in the staging lanes, all trying to fit into an 8-car field, the first session was guaranteed to be intense. The first pair out of the lanes turned into a single for Mike Peck Sr., as Ryan Horan, in the "Infinity Plumbing" entry, was forced to shut off after the burnout. Peck wasted no time getting to the finish line, hammering out a great 5.800 - 241.63 to show the troops what the track could handle.

Next up was Derrick Moreira in his "Nitro Junkies" Camaro, and he wasn't much slower, with a very good 5.874 - 238.22 pass. Running an ex-Ron Hodgson car, with a Canadian crewchief, John Evanchuk (ex-NHRA national event champion in TA/FC), and Jay Mageau (Nostaliga Funny Car racer), the team was more than pleased with their results. The third pair of the round produced a couple of surprises, as Drew Austin launched hard in the "Pro Max" Mustang, but ran into heavy tire shake and shut off. In the other lane, the "Cecil Matthews Motorsports" Camaro, driven by Jim Maroney, and tuned by veteran nitro tuner/racer Glenn Mikres absolutely bombed the scoreboard with career best numbers of 5.591 - 261.02 to take the top spot and nearly rewrite the track records.

After several pairs of side-by-side low 6-second times, the final pairing of the round featured two of the heavy hitters in the Heritage and Legends series, with multi-time defending Heritage series champ, Bobby Cottrell, in the "Austin & O'Brien" Camaro laying down a strong 5.804 - 250.69 to slot into the #3 spot, just behind Peck, while in the other lane, Geoff Monise in the "Quarter Pounder" wasn't far behind with a #4 qualifying 5.873 - 247.47 pass. After the first session, the bump spot sat at a 6.323 with Jim Maroney in the "Speed Sport" Dodge Omni.

Closing out the competition segment of the evening show were the totally iconic "Awful Awfuls", aka the AA/Fuel Altereds. With ten cars vying for the 8-car field, it promised to be intense. Adding a little more excitement to the show was a modified 6.00-index rule that allowed - in qualifying only - a driver to go under the index without being penalized. In other words, the eight racers closest to the 6.00 index, either over or under, would be qualifed. However, they would then revert to the "hard" 6.00-index rule for eliminations.

It didn't take long for some great numbers to start showing up on the scoreboards, as three of the first four cars ran in the 6-teens, with young Dylan Winefsky in the family's "Nitro Moose" '32 Bantam leading the way with a very good 6.132 - 230.25 pass. Running alongside him was the "nitro whisperer" Johnny West in the "Plan A" '23 T, laying down an almost as quick (6.155), coupled with a big mph charge of 238.60. That was followed by side-by-side 6-teens by Mark Whynaught in the "Nitro Mamba" and transplanted Aussie Matt Leonard in the "Nitro Rat".

The second to last pair of the session included AA/FA rookie, Vince Karstetter in the beautiful "Sudden Pleasure" car. Purchased several years ago from Texas Funny Car racer Dal Denton, the team slowly pieced together everything needed to run a competitive fuel altered. Assisting in that task was fellow Arizonan, Johnny West. No surprise, eh? He helped them get licensed recently at Tuscon Dragway, then turned over the tuning duties to a man well known in these parts, Jake Sanders. Right out of the trailer they blitzed the timers with a brilliant 5.991 e.t. at only 209.42 mph to take the top spot and shock the troops.

The round closed with a pair of early shutoff runs by the only non-qualifiers after the first of two sessions, Keith Wilson in the "Witch Doctor" Topolino, and Bill Windham (yes, the Funny Car racer), in the "Burkholder Bros." Fiat. Finishing the evening's entertainment were Ed "The Outlaw" Jones in his wheelstanding "Jelly Belly" stagecoach, and a match race between a Jet Funny Car and a Jet Dragster. The "Hocus Pocus" flopper of Mark Matthews had a flameout at half track, while the "Iceman" dragster of Curt White blasted out a 5.621 - 283.27 to finish the show in fine fashion.

We've got tons of pit notes, but not enough time to post them this morning, but we'll leave you with one tidbit. Well known Top Alcohol Funny Car racer, Nick Januik, has added another car to his ever-growing team. In fact, he's also added a bike as his daughter Peyton Januik is here riding a 1000cc Suzuki GSR. But the big story is Januik debuting his brand new Pro Mod entry and making the runs necessary to crossgrade his license. His first two runs saw some very good numbers to half track and today he's making his two full passes to complete the process. If all goes well, he'll make his national event debut at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd in two weeks time.

As with the pit notes, we haven't got time to post any photos today either. Maybe Sunday evening, but it could be next week before we get into all of them. As always, stay tuned for updates.

Photo copyright by Firebird Raceway

52nd annual NIGHTFIRE NATIONALS

After yesterday's test session, the race teams get down to the serious business of qualifying today, with the first PRO session starting at 8:00 pm. With sunset an hour later, it's going to be quite a show, under the lights, at what is arguably the most iconic dragstrip in the Northwestern United States. This will be Northern Thunder's first visit to the facility, and we are certainly looking forward to spending the next three days at the track, meeting the racers, the track management, and everyone involved in putting on this great event.

We're not hauling the laptop out to the track today, as we're not sure if there's a media room or any space for that matter, available for us to setup for reports from the track. But we will have a full, or as full as time allows, report late tonight on this page. With qualifying running until at least 10:00 pm, and the drive back to the hotel after the fans have mostly left the facility, it's going to be a late night, or early morning before we get much done. Best to wait until Saturday morning to see much of what transpires today.

Today's weather forecast for the track shows clouds until well into the afternoon, but clearing in the early evening. Temps are going to be warm, with a peak of 84(F) or 29 (C), with light-ish winds, so it won't be terribly difficult conditions for the racers and spectators. Tomorrow and Sunday show much clearer skies with sun pretty much all day and top temps of 88 (F) on Saturday and 86 (F) Sunday. Lots of water, lots of sunscreen for this reporter, for sure.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #3 - FINAL

(LEFT) Now driving for the Reinart Family, Steve Vang didn't have any luck in his final qualifying shot, falling behind Jordan Ballew (mostly obscured in the near lane), right off the line and ended up in the #27 position and out of the eliminations show.

(RIGHT) The other car in the Reinart stable, the "Prairie Fire" (near lane), with second generation racer David Stringer at the wheel, likewise failed to better his Friday best of 4.632, and dropped into the "C" field. In the far lane, Danny Smith cranked out a much improved 4.733 - 150.40, to move up one spot in the order, solidly in the "C" field.

(LEFT) With a new look and new partner, Mitch Bowen knocked half a second off his Friday 5.569 effort, and climbed up one spot to the bottom of the "C" field with his 5.023 - 136.70 clocking.

(RIGHT) Making the biggest improvement of all was the "Grim Reeper" entry of Mary Reep, as she finally recorded a time and cranked out a 4.193 - 179.28 to slot into the "A" field in the lucky #7 position.

(LEFT) Putting a Funny Car body on for the first time in quite a while, Washington state's Dave Benjamin looked good but didn't run any better than his Friday best of 4.675 - 158.62 to drop a few spots to #21, in the middle of the "C" field.

(RIGHT) Just barely visible and far back coming off the line was Dave Benjamin (far lane), while Jeff Cameron tried to coax a third straight 3-second run out of the "War Machine". He failed to register a time though as he left before the tree was activated. Shortly after this photo was taken, Benjamin smacked the wall just past the 330' clocks.

(LEFT) A newcomer to the tour, but obviously experienced, Brent Jones had his "Lawless" entry running consistently as he picked up a few hundredths from his Friday best of 4.562 to a 4.532 - 165.75 to grab the "Lucky #13" bonus bucks, and a spot in the middle of the "B" field.

(RIGHT) Making the long trip from his Connecticut base, Wayne Hofmann ran into trouble down track in the "China Syndrome" and coasted to a 5.40 - 88.17 time.

(LEFT) Laying down one of his patented half-track burnouts, Justin Herbst had the "Executioner" primed for a good run, but his 4.92 - 105.26 fell well short of his previous best of 4.648 - 154.16, falling two spots, and dropping out of the "B" field.

(RIGHT) Capping a truly "lost weekend", Chance Biffle climbed out of his "Bad Intentions" after losing fire on the burnout. He missed Friday's first qualifying session, and broke on the launch in the second qualifier, before this episode in the final round. With no recorded time, he sat at the bottom of the ladder and finished for the event.

(LEFT) Launching hard with the front wheels dancing off the track, Tom Furches shut off early with a 4.57 - 119.46 lighting up the scoreboard as his "Made In America" dropped out of the "A" field and ended the session in the #10 spot on the ladder.

(RIGHT) Making his first appearance at an FCC event, Sheldon Lofgreen got the beautifully prepared "Arizona Thunder" to show it's potential with a great 4.223 - 175.03 pass that vaulted him from near the bottom of the "C" field all the way to the "A" field in the #8 position.

With the fields set after a session that saw a few changes in the ladders, most notably Mary Reep finally getting down the track and all the way to the #7 spot in the "A" field, and Sheldon Lofgreen earning a first round matchup against the top qualifier in the "A" field, after starting the session in the #22 spot. At the other end of the spectrum, Jody Austin in his blown fuel "Bushwhacker" was unable to improve on his Friday night 5.310 effort and ended up outside the "C" field in the first alternate spot.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Pre-Race Ceremonies

With pretty much a full house on hand, the spectators rose for the national anthem and the invocation before the first round started.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "A" Field - Round ONE

(LEFT) The first race of eliminations was over almost before it started, as Mary Reep (far lane), lost fire on the line and could only watch as Keith Zimmerer (near lane) streaked away to the win. It wasn't all smooth sailing though, as the "Penny Pincher 2.0" got out of shape and narrowly avoided crossing the centerline as he coasted to a 4.240 - 159.29 winning time.

(RIGHT) Next up were Lyle Greenberg (far lane) against the "War Machine" of Texan Jeff Cameron. Neither driver reacted quickly, but Cameron's almost comatose .438 light made Greenberg's .218 reaction look like a major holeshot. That was all academic as the "Cone Hunter" nearly broke into the 3's with his best of the weekend 4.020 - 195.40 pass while Cameron gave up early to a 4.959 - 105.93 clocking.

(LEFT) The defending series champion, Kirk Williams (near lane) started on what he hoped to be a march to the winners circle with an excellent 3.930 - 194.13 as Sheldon Lofgreen (far lane) rolled the beams for an automatic redlight as he spooled up the turbos.

(RIGHT) Closing out the round was the first side-by-side race of the day, as Clay Cunningham (near lane) took an early lead with an .043 to .096 reaction time advantage over Shayne Lawson (far lane). It didn't last too long though as the "Man O' War II" took the win with a very good 3.933 - 198.06 over Cunningham's close 4.063 - 162.34 effort. The "Still Crazy" car had a flash of fire as it neared the finish line and that sealed it's fate.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "B" Field - Round ONE

(LEFT) The "B" field was running on a 4.07 index based on Ray Stringer's 4.275 qualifying pass. Not coming close to that number were Jordan Ballew (near lane) or Jade Cook (far lane). Cook's "Nemesis" Dodge cut an incredible .004 light and ran away from Ballew with a winning 4.301 - 147.69 as the "Ballew Thunder" was well behind with a decent 4.560 - 159.12 effort in the loss.

(RIGHT) Reacting quickly, Tony Arcuri (far lane), took an early lead in the "Firefighter". His .035 light put Tom Furches .175 reaction well behind at the 60' clocks. But it didn't last too long, as the "Made In America" entry pulled away to a two car length win, stopping the timers at 4.226 - 176.68 over Arcuri's slower 4.521 - 162.16 losing cause.

(LEFT) It was alcohol versus nitro in the next pairing, with New Mexico's Ray Stringer (far lane) leaving first and finishing first. Alex Barker (near lane), in the GTO gave up more than a tenth on the green and trailed all the way down, carding a 4.563 - 161.52 for the loss. Advancing to the semifinal was Stringer as the "Blown Cent-Less" posted a very good 4.284 - 181.23 with big-block Chevy power.

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "C" Field - Round ONE

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Round TWO

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "C" Field - FINAL

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "B" Field - FINAL

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "A" Field - FINAL

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Albuquerque Dragway

We've got all the photos from the latest Funny Car Chaos event, at Albuquerque National Dragway, but with a birthday happening today and a VERY early departure (4:00 AM) for Boise, Idaho for the 52nd annual Nightfire Nationals, we just don't have time to fill in any of the details or post the final qualifying session and eliminations photos. We're going to try to fill in some of the blanks when we get to Boise tomorrow evening, but there's no guarantees. We will get the FCC coverage wrapped up by the end of next week and we'll try to get timely photos and reports from Boise every day of the event. Stay tuned for updates, starting Thursday evening.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #1

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #2

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52nd annual NIGHTFIRE NATIONALS

It's just a few days before the action starts at Eagle, Idaho's iconic Firebird Raceway. There's going to be a full - or overflowing - field of Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars on hand, plus the dinosaurs of dragdom, the AA/Fuel Altereds. Throw in a host of supporting categories, and it will truly be an event to remember. And we're going to be there, bringing full coverage of the race from the pits, the starting line, and all points between. We won't be arriving at the track until Friday morning, thereby missing the open test session on Thursday, but we'll hit the ground running when we do come through the gates.

Our first posting will be Friday evening, followed by updates late on Saturday and Sunday. Full coverage will start being posted next Tuesday and will likely take a week to complete. That's a week of Northern Thunder TIME, which may be "slightly" longer than a week of actual time. And as always, stay tuned for updates.

Before we leave for the Nightfires, we're hoping to post photos and descriptions from the latest FUNNY CAR CHAOS race, the 60th anniversary special event that finished Saturday night at Albuquerque Dragway. Some great racing was provided by three full fields of floppers, with the track e.t. and speed records being shattered in every qualifying session and throughout eliminations. There were three photographers (Bob and Ginger Snyder and Dale Fackler) representing this website on site, so we'll have heaps of photos to go with the details we picked up from the FLOracing broadcast.

Reflections on Pacific Raceways (formerly Seattle International Raceway) and the NHRA Northwest Nationals

It's been a busy two weeks in the Northwest, with a doubleheader Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Regional/Divisional event at Woodburn Dragstrip, followed just a few days later by the 34th annual Flav-R-Pak NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways (Kent, WA). Competitor numbers at the national event continued their slow downward trend, with just 13 cars in Top Fuel and Funny Car, 14 bikes in Pro Stock Motorcycle, 10 cars in Top Alcohol Dragster and just seven in Top Alcohol Funny Car. It's been 15 years since there was a full 16-car field of TAD's at Seattle, and oddly enough, just eight years since the alky Funny Cars filled their quota.

It's been quite a few years since I've attended the Northwest Nationals, possibly ten years, but I've so many fond memories, and a few sad ones, of races I've seen there, racers and fans I've met there, and waay back in the 1980's, runs I made there in my old Pro Comp alcohol dragster. Just posting the pic seen below brings back so many memories of what I was doing nearly 40 years ago.

That's enough of a trip down memory lane for today, now let's get back to the business at hand: the next FUNNY CAR CHAOS event starts in just three days at Albuquerque Dragway. It's a very special race, celebrating 60 years of racing at the track and there will be a full contingent of cars in attendance. There will definitely be enough cars to fill three fields, and possibly enough to have a "D" field shootout. We've got both of the Northern Thunder photographers scheduled to be there, so there's going to be lots of pics and details to provide a full report on the event next week. Stay tuned for that.

Before he started the 1100+ mile trip home to southern Arizona, our ace lensman, "BIG" Bob Snyder, sent us all the eliminations photos from Mo-Kan Dragway. Despite a rather sparse crowd compared to Saturday's packed house, the fans that came out on Sunday were treated to a great show of nitro-burning drag racing. The domination of the show by the NHRA injected fuel Top Alcohol Dragsters became evident throughout the day as all the cars that appeared for the final rounds were out of the Randy Meyer Racing stable. Whether that dominance by one team is a good thing for NITRO CHAOS is open to discussion. However, they do add numbers to the field and force everyone else to step up their performance or fall by the wayside.

NITRO CHAOS - Eliminations - Round ONE - "A" Field

After three rounds of qualifying, the "A" field was an all 3-second affair, ranging from top qualifying Kebin Kinsley at an awesome 3.537, down to #8 Gary Wheeler Jr. at a very good 3.993 e.t. With no breakout in effect, eliminations promised some serious competition.

(LEFT) First out of the gate was the Kebin Kinsley (near lane) versus Gary Wheeler Jr. (far lane) match. This is NOT the burnout, but it's obvious that the "War Wagon" had some serious traction trouble right at the hit. He gave up the run right away and coasted to an 8-second time, while the "Brook & Wheeler" entry sped away to an excellent 3.924 - 202.79 as they advanced to the semi-final round.

(RIGHT) The next pair saw another dragster versus altered race, with Jody Austin (near lane) leaving very hard, carding a .923 sixty foot time, before heading for the centerline as he was forced to shut off the "Bushwhacker" to the tune of a 4.96 - 88 mph time. In the far lane, the Canadian entry, "The Bull" blasted out the best numbers of the weekend for driver Todd Bruce, as his 3.600 - 219.62 set a high bar for the following racers. It also gave him lane choice over Wheeler in the next round.

(LEFT) The next pairing turned into a single run for Rachel Meyer as her scheduled opponent, Donnie Massey was forced to shut off before attempting his burnout. Meyer didn't spare the horses as she pounded out her best run of the weekend, with a best of the round - so far - 3.584 - 222.66 lighting up the scoreboards.

(RIGHT) Closing the first round was another of the Meyer sisters, two-time world champion Megan Meyer, (near lane), facing off against the hard running "Psycho Too", driven by James Gilliland (far lane). The race was all over on the starting line as Gilliland redlighted by .010, then proceeded to blow the motor at the 400' mark, but still managed to stop the clocks at 3.912 - 170.20. Taking the automatic win was Meyer, but she ceded lane choice in the semis to her sister, as Megan's timeslip was "only" a 3.674 - 218.77.

NITRO CHAOS - Eliminations - Round ONE - "B" Field

The "B" group started with Chase Copeland on top at 4.028, then worked down to the bump spot, held by Tod Barker at a solid 4.217 e.t. However, there was one car broken at the end of qualifying, as Mark Hunter, in the "Jailbreak" AA/Fuel altered couldn't run. His place was taken by first alternate Chuck Loftin, giving the "Nitro Psycho" a second chance. With Copeland qualifying #1 at 4.028, the index was set at 3.82 for the first two rounds of eliminations, before the no-breakout final.

(LEFT) Eliminations began with the #4 John Umlauf (near lane) and #5 Joseph Gallegos (far lane) qualifiers pairing off. Getting the jump off the line by seven hundredths was Umlauf in the "Mass Chaos" fuel altered, but the "Nitro Clown" dragster quickly took back the lead and pulled away to a convincing win at 4.007 - 198.24, as Umlauf slowed to a 4.517 - 127.30 for the loss.

(RIGHT) The next match pitted the #2 qualifier, Matt Sackman in the third Randy Meyer Racing entry (near lane), against #7 Tod Barker (far lane) in the injected nitro "Back In Black" Corvette-bodied funny car. Sackman picked up more than two tenths from his qualifying time and took the easy win with a 3.838 pass at an early shutoff 151.36 mph, while Barker gave up at 400' and posted a 4.475 - 127.30 in the losing effort.

(LEFT) Failing to take advantage of his "get out of jail free card", Chuck Loftin (near lane) left second, dropped a cylinder (or two) on the launch and laboured down the track to a losing 4.431 - 131.81 effort in the Mach-1 Mustang "Motivation" entry. Taking full advantage of his plight was Chase Copeland (far lane) in his injected nitro fuel altered, as he cranked out his best run of the weekend, at 3.952 - 191.82 to move into the second round. His e.t. was quick enough to take lane choice over Joseph Gallegos in that matchup.

(RIGHT) The first round closed with a pair of AA/Fuel Altereds, but it turned into a single for Aaron Morrow in the Darby & Morrow "Nitro Relapse", as scheduled opponent Anthony Whitfield failed to fire in the "Mighty Mouse" car. Morrow took it easy with a leisurely launch, with at least one cylinder mis-firing, and stopped the timers with an easy 4.550 - 109.65 time on the scoreboard. That paired him up with Matt Sackman in the semifinal round with Sackman holding lane choice.

NITRO CHAOS - Eliminations - Round TWO - "A" Field

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NITRO CHAOS - Eliminations - Round TWO - "B" Field

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NITRO CHAOS - Eliminations - FINAL Round - "A" & "B" Fields

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As the event header states, Mo-Kan Dragway is celebrating 61 years of racing at their facility near Asbury, MO. This year's second Nitro Chaos visit has pumped up the volume, both figuratively and literally, with Scott Palmer bringing not only his NHRA Top Fuel dragster, but the world's wildest Pro Mod, "Stude-Zilla" to the show. While the dragster was making solo passes, the blown fuel Pro Mod was match racing against J.R. Sandlian's "Bad Attitude"early model Camaro.

Unfortunately, Friday's planned qualifying sessions were rained out, but the sun came out yesterday and they completed all three rounds of qualifying. We've got a batch of photos from those rounds to post but they won't all be uploaded until tomorrow. With great weather here in Victoria, it's going to be a BBQ day with friends and some relaxation. But we'll get back to it tomorrow with full results and lots of visuals from the 2nd annual Nitro Chaos Drags at (Smokin') Mo-Kan Dragway.

It looks like today's eliminations will go ahead under hot sunny conditions and the second consecutive weather-affected Chaos event will be completed, albeit a day late. All the photos from eliminations will be posted on Tuesday. Stay tuned for that. For now, here's the photos from the first qualifying session. Details will be added tomorrow.

NITRO CHAOS Qualifying - Session #1

(LEFT) Leading off the session was the veteran team from Texas, the "Nitro Relapse" gang, with Terry Darby turning the wrenches and Aaron Morrow behind the wheel. Despite dropping a cylinder on the launch, Morrow posted a very good 4.160 - 176.13 to sit at the top of the leader board after the first pair.

(RIGHT) Facing Morrow in the other lane was the current World Fuel Altered champion, Mark Hunter in the Curt Wasson-owned "Jailbreak" entry. Leaving first and getting to the finish line first, despite a slightly slower e.t., Hunter rang up a solid 4.181 - 169.94 on the scoreboard. His 60' time of .991 was impressive too, and the gap at the finish line was less than a thousandth of a second.

(LEFT) Blazing across the starting line on the burnout, the beautiful "Showtime" entry of Donnie Massey prepped the tires before his first qualifying pass. On the run he left the line hard with a sub 1-second short time, before stopping the clocks at 3.971 at an early shutoff 154.59 mph.

(RIGHT) In the other lane, Funny Car Chaos regular Chuck Loftin dropped at least one cylinder on the launch and lumbered down the track to a 4.492 - 144.83 on his first attempt.

(LEFT) The first late model rear-engine injected nitro dragster in the field, "The Bull", owned by Canadian Cliff Bakx, and driven by North Dakotan Todd Bruce, continued their assault on the Nitro Chaos tour. Leaving quickly with an .005 reaction time and .948 time to 60', the car started moving from side to side before Bruce shut it down to a 4.108 - 154.59.

(RIGHT) In the other lane, the all black "Mass Chaos AA/Fuel Altered of John Umlauf was able to keep the throttle open all the way to the 660' stripe, with a 4.118 - 184.05 lighting up the scoreboard.

(LEFT) Coming up to Mo-Kan with the "take no prisoners" "War Machine", the world's fastest fuel altered (304 mph at the Texas Motorplex last year), Kebin Kinsley (near lane) left like a rocket, putting up a .910 time in 60' and keeping the loud pedal down until near the finish line, stopping the clocks with the first 3-second pass of the event, at 3.682 - 186.26 to take the top spot on the ladder. In the far lane, the "Nitro Clown" dragster of Joseph Gallegos wasn't too far behind at 4.057 - 194.97, but his late leave left him well behind at the stripe.

(RIGHT) This next pair turned into a single for Matt Sackman (near lane) in one of the Randy Meyer Racing team cars. His opponent, Anthony Whitfield (far lane) in the blown fuel small-block Chevy altered lurched into the staging beams, turning on both bulbs before Sackman had pre-staged, then sat there as the "Mighty Mouse" lost fire. Sackman launched well but shut off very early to the tune of a 4.167 - 122.35 timeslip.

(LEFT) There was trouble in both lanes when the "Bushwhacker" fuel altered of Jody Austin (far lane) went into instant tire smoke on the green, shutting off immediately to a 15-second time. Not faring much better was Gary Wheeler Jr. as the Oklahoma digger started hopping on the launch before shutting down to a 6.77 - 84 mph clocking.

(RIGHT) This looked like a major mismatch as an injected small-block Chevy dragster, driven by Paul Schultz (far lane) faced off against the Big Show "Fuelish Addiction" Funny Car of Dusty Hunt. Both cars ran into trouble, with Schultz labouring all the way down before stopping the clocks at 6.674 - 122.45. Hunt got the flopper off the line well but was off the throttle just past the 330' mark, with a 4.623 - 110.24 result for his efforts.

(LEFT) A pair of injected nitro burners faced off next, with Chase Copeland (not visible in the far lane) in his altered, against another Randy Meyer car, this one driven by daughter Rachel Meyer. The 2021 NHRA Top Alcohol champion absolutely bombed the timers with low e.t. and top speed at 3.617 - 221.89 to show everyone that she was ready to rock the Mo-Kan field. Copeland ran hard to the 330' mark before lifting and slowing to a 4.266 - 121.33, that grabbed a spot near the top of the "B" field.

(RIGHT) The south Texas fuel racer, Mitch King, brought out the "Bone Shaker" and ran into trouble right away as it broke on the launch and pulled to a stop over by the guardrail. Not shown in the other lane was Tod Barker who fought his injected fuel funny car all the way down the track to a 4.357 - 146.48 set of numbers.

(LEFT) The eighth AA/Fuel altered to run in the session became the third to break into the 3-second zone. James Gilliland in the "Psycho Too" laid down a great 3.864 - 196.08 time to take the #3 spot in the "A" field and become the quickest altered after the "War Machine" of Farris & Kinsley. Gilliland's speed was the second fastest of the session as he fell just short of the 200-mph mark.

(RIGHT) Expected to challenge for the top spot in the field, Megan Meyer in the third Randy Meyer Racing car, had the car lurch off the line and nearly come to a halt just past the 60' clocks before it opened up and blasted down the track to a 194.81 mph speed, but coupled with a decidedly off-pace 7.75 elapsed time. That placed her in the #17 spot at the conlusion of the session and just outside the "B" field bump spot. However, with two more sessions remaining, that situation was almost certain to change.

NITRO CHAOS Qualifying - Session #2

You could call this group of photos "Chute Shot Saturday" as our photog, "BIG" Bob Snyder, always loves to station himself at the far end for one session and get some great closeup pics of cars slowing, but still moving at speed, in the shutdown area. The light was pretty good for photography down at the end of the track in the late afternoon too.

(LEFT) After a problematic 6.77 pass in the first round of qualifying, the Brook & Wheeler team were looking for much more from their AA/Fuel Dragster. They certainly picked up the pace as driver Gary Wheeler Jr. posted a great 3.993 - 176.68 to jump up to #5, in the middle of the "A" field. Racing him was Tod Barker, who's injected fuel flopper lost fire on the burnout and was pushed back behind the line.

(RIGHT) Looking for a shot at the top of the field, Megan Meyer did just that, breaking into the 3.50's with a top qualifying 3.594 - 223.66 to push everyone back one spot. Barely visible in the other lane, far from the finish line, Chuck Loftin wasn't able to improve on his first session 4.49 pass and dropped one spot to #15 on the ladder.

(LEFT) Running alongside another Fuel Altered, John Umlauf was looking to step up from his earlier 4.118 effort, but fell short by a tenth with a decent but not better 4.210 - 182.41 pass.

(RIGHT) Following his failure to get off the starting line in the first go-round, Anthony Whitfield pushed the "Mighty Mouse" to a near 3-second e.t., but fell just short with a very good 4.055 - 166.79 to vault into the middle of the "A" field in the #5 spot, and in the process, push Umlauf out of the top eight, to the #9 position, atop the "B" field.

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NITRO CHAOS Qualifying - Session #3 (FINAL)

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(RIGHT) Billed as a "Saturday Night Callout", the "grudge" match between the Meyer sisters, with Rachel Meyer in the near lane, and Megan Meyer in the far lane, turned into a pedalfest as both drivers lit the tires off the line, then whomped the throttle a few times enroute to side-by-side 7-second 70-mph runs. Getting the glory was Megan as she managed to turn on the winlight.

(LEFT) Following a strong burnout, the "Fuelish Addiction" funny car of Dusty Hunt was forced to shut down due to an oil leak and lost his final chance to get into the show. As qualifying ended, the team sat in the #18 spot, nearly half a second short of the 4.217 bump spot for the "B" field.

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS Qualifying - Round THREE (FINAL)

With the storm clouds gathering as the final session commenced, and getting darker throughout, the racers were hoping to get well placed in the respective fields before eliminations began in the late afternoon. With only 29 cars in competition, almost every car that was healthy after qualifying was going to be in the show. As the session began, the bump spot at the bottom of the "C" field stood at a relatively easy 5.148 e.t., held down by Robin Rish. At the other end of the spectrum, sitting at the very top of the "A" field was Kirk Williams with his Friday night 3.757 - 203.49 effort.

(LEFT) First out of the lanes to start the final session were Christine Foster (near lane), and on the far side, Danny Smith. Both teams were running a Top Alcohol combination and both wanted to advance to the "A" field. Foster appeared to be in trouble as she was pushed back after the burnout, but was able to stage the car with no drama. Things came undone when she launched and headed directly at our photographer. Her 6.80 pass left her - at least temporarily - in the #10 position. Not doing much better was Smith as his 4.80 - 145.19 clocking left him in the #12 spot and in danger of falling further back in the "B" field.

(RIGHT) Coming into the final session sitting on the "A" field bump spot was Jade Cook (right side) was hoping to repeat, or possibly improve a little, to solidify her position in an "A" field for the first time in her career. On the left side of the photo, Jordan Ballew wanted to move up to the "B" field from his #17 spot as the session started. Neither driver got their wish, but Cook put down a very respectable 4.27, at an early shutoff 133.2 to remain in the #8 spot. Her 60' time of just .996 indicated just how much power the "Nemesis" has under the hood of their Dodge Daytona. In the other lane, Ballew showed incredible consistency, running his third consecutive 4.51 pass, this one a 4.515 that was just a thousandth slower than his Friday best of 4.514. He remained in the #17 spot, at the top of the "C" field and in a very good position going into eliminations..

(LEFT) Launching strongly on the right side of the photo, Michael Neal improved by three hundredths of a second but remained in the #20 position. On the left side, Robin Rish was unable to improve on his Friday best of 5.148 and hung on (by a fingernail) to the last spot of eliminations at #24 on the ladder.

(RIGHT) Pulling into an early lead on the left side, Wayne Hofmann improved half a tenth with a good 4.393 - 156.11 to strengthen his grip on the #16 spot at the bottom of the "B" field. On the right side, Mike Buchanan pulled a serious wheelie for the first hundred feet and wasn't able to challenge his earlier best of 4.513. That left him in the very tenuous #16 spot on the bubble in the "B" field. With Jeff Cameron and Chris Schneider waiting in the staging lanes, his position wasn't looking too sfe.

(LEFT) Two of the "A" field hitters faced off in the next pairing, with #5 Jim Chase (left side) matched up against #1 Kirk Williams (right side). Both racers were looking for another quick run, and Chase led them out of the gate, with the wheels in the air well past the 60' clocks. He kept the pedal all the way to the finish line, stopping the clocks with a great 3.888 - 186.28 to improve by more than a tenth, and join the "3-second gang", but remain in the #5 spot on the ladder. Williams shook hard and shut off quickly to an 8-second pass, but still held on to the top spot in the field.

(RIGHT) Following side-by-side burnouts, Chris Schneider (foreground) was looking to step up and grab a spot on the elimination ladder. For the first time of the weekend, he got the John Troxel owned and tuned Mustang to lay down a good pass, putting a 4.184 - 174.80 to climb all the way to #9 on the list, at the top of the "B" field. In the background, Danny Mann managed to post a somewhat respectable number at 5.331 to move up to the #25, still one spot outside the "C" field, in the first alternate position. The car was running decently but backfired the blower before the finish line, sending the burst panel in the hood flying.

(LEFT) Coming into the final session at the bottom of the "C" field with a 4.988 "best" on Friday, Jeff Cameron was looking to move way up the charts, and hopefully into the 3-second zone. He did just that with a very good 3.871 - 188.36, initiated with a .996 time to 60' as he blasted his way to the #4 spot and first round lane choice in the "A" field. That moved the bubble for that group down to Steve Griboski's 4.066, and bump Jade Cook to the top of the "B" field. On the left side of the photo, Justin Herbst wasn't able to improve and stayed in the middle of the "C" field in the #20 spot.

(RIGHT) Leaving strongly on the right side, Tony Arcuri shaved two hundredths off his Friday best, posting a 4.317 - 166.09 to hang on to the #13 spot in the middle of the "B" field. Having an equally strong run until half track, Casey Geeslin started moving towards the centerline and clicked it off to a 4.995 - 106.25, leaving him in the #16 spot, with just a toehold at the bottom of the "B" field.

(LEFT) Pulling into an early lead on the right side, Shayne Lawson ran a consistent, and slightly quicker, 3.804 - 199.35 to solidify his hold on the #3 spot in the "A" field, and nearly join Kirk Williams in the "200-mph club". Lawson also continued his improvement on 60' times with a very good .981 clocking. On the left side, Kris Battey cut nearly a tenth off his earlier best, with a 4.823 - 143.70 pass to give him a slightly stronger hold on the #23 spot as the final qualifying session was winding down.

(RIGHT) The next pair featured a pair of "A" field qualifiers, with Jesse Clark (left side) versus Keith Zimmerer on the right side. Zimmerer held the #2 spot with his earlier 3.781, while Clark was hanging on the bump spot in the "A" field with his 4.103 pass on Friday.

(LEFT) Shutting off after the burnout earlier in the session, Chuck Loftin got one final chance to make the show in the last pair of qualifying. It didn't work as he sat on the line for quite a while, staring at the GREEN light before limping to a 6.943 - 102.75 that left him well outside the "C" field. Streaking away from Loftin was Clay Cunningham who blasted out a 3.967 - 173.47 that vaulted him all the way from #19 to #8 and a spot in the "A" field.

(RIGHT) Closing out qualifying was the final pass for Tom Furches, and he picked up nearly half a second, but only moving from the #15 spot to #11, but in the top half of the "B" field, with lane choice for the first round of eliminations.

With the fields set, the range of e.t.'s in the "A" field ran from Kirk Williams at 3.757 down to Clay Cunningham's 3.967, making for an all 3-second field. The "B" group started with Steve Griboski at 4.066 and worked down to Wayne Hofmann, in at 4.393. Griboski's e.t. set the index at 3.86 for the "B" field. The "C" field started with Danny Smith at 4.394, setting their index at 4.19, and sitting at the bottom of the ladder was Matt Nissen at 5.010, narrowly missing making it an all 4-second group.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Round TWO

With the sun sinking over the horizon and lights on, the evening qualifying session got underway with a full contingent of cars waiting in the staging lanes. The blazing orange sunset made for a beautiful background as the first pair fired up and came to life. The light faded quickly and the track was in full darkness before the third pair ran.

(LEFT) The evening qualifying session opened with Wayne Hofmann making a solo pass, as scheduled opponent, Mike Buchanan, was shut off after the burnout. Hofmann wasn't able to better his afternoon 4.468 pass, and stayed in the #10 spot on the ladder, and solidly placed in the "B" field.

(RIGHT) After laying down a solid burnout, Matt Nissen shut off without making a pass.

(LEFT) He may have left first, but Danny Smith in the near lane, broke shortly after this photo and rolled to a stop before the finish line. In the far lane, Jade Cook down the run her team has been searching for all year, as she blitzed the scoreboard with a career best e.t. and speed at 4.124 - 177.24 to rocket up the ladder from "no time recorded" in the first session, to #5, and well placed in the "A" field. Unfortunately, Cook was very likely to be bumped down to the top of the "B" field.

(RIGHT) There was no improvement for either driver in this next pairing, as Jim Chase (near lane), slowed to a 4.41 - 151.00 clocking, and stayed in the #4 position, but only by a thread with some serious hitters in the lanes looking to move up. In the far lane, Michael Neal slowed a tenth from his first session effort, carding a 4.92 - 146.00 that left him in the #19 and dropping.

(LEFT) Despite laying down a strong 3.818 - 201.43 effort in the first session, good enough for #2 on the ladder, Kirk Williams (near lane) was looking to take the top spot on the ladder. He did just that, pounding out a new low e.t. and top speed of the meet with a brilliant 3.757 - 203.49 effort. On the other side it was the "Executioner" picking up nearly a tenth, at 4.529 - 157.15, as Justin Herbst managed to get back into the "B" field, at the bottom, in the in the #16 position.

(RIGHT) After an aborted first session pass, Lance Van Hauen (near lane) pushed the Van Hauen Brothers car to a very strong 3.880 - 195.87 to vault all the way to #4, and a spot in the middle of the "A" field. Also improving, marginally, was Tony Arcuri, (far lane), with a consistent 4.335 - 166.48 that moved him back to the top of the "B" field.

(LEFT) This pairing featured a pair of Missouri-based Mach 1 Mustang-bodied cars, both with drivers looking for a timeslip, as neither made it to the finish line in the first session. Chris Schneider moved first and got to the finish line first, albeit with a mediocre 5.506 - 120.10, "good" enough for only the last spot in the "C" field in the #24 position. Faring even worse was Missouri's Danny Mann (far lane), as he could only manage a 8.414 - 45.24, leaving him in the third alternate position for the "C" field.

(RIGHT) With no time on the board following his first session DQ (took out the 330' timing block), Jeff Cameron (near lane), needed to get solidly into the show. He tried hard, and pedalled, but could only muster a 4.988 - 107.73, that left him in the middle of the "C" field, in the #21 spot with one more chance to improve in tomorrow's final round of qualifying. Having trouble from half track to the finish line as the car hugged the guardwall, Clay Cunningham, in the far lane, wasn't able to better his first session 4.737, and remained in the #18 spot in the top half of the "C" field.

(LEFT) Running by himself after opponent Kris Battey broke before the burnout, Steve Griboski blasted out the first nitro fuelled pass of the evening, knocking nearly three tenths of his first session 4.382 pass, as he cranked out a 4.066 - 184.70 to jump into the "A" field in the #6 position. Griboski's run also moved the bubble for the "A" field down to Jade Cook's 4.124 pass. Without having a chance to make a run, Battey remained in the bottom half of the "C" field.

(RIGHT) There were improvements on both sides of the track in the next pair, as Shayne Lawson (near lane), bombed out a 3.816 - 197.48 to knock three hundredths off his first session 3.840, to remain in the #3 position. Showing tremendous power down low, Lawson did the 60' in .976 seconds. Picking up a bunch from her first round tire shaking 5-second effort, Christine Foster (far lane), knocked out a good 4.254 - 162.39 to leapfrog from #24 to #10, advancing from the very bottom of the "C" field to near the top of the "B" field.

(LEFT) Leaving strongly was Jesse Clark (near lane), but he shut off early again, lifting to the tune of a 4.19 pass. He did remain in the #7 spot in the "A" field courtesy of his first session 4.103 - 146.78 effort. In the far lane, Casey Geeslin put down a solid 4.483 - 173.27 in his blown alky Hemi-powered Camaro, and advanced to the #14 spot, near the bottom of the "B" field.

(RIGHT) Following a dismal 6-second pass earlier, Chuck Loftin ran into even more trouble on his second pass. Following a ragged burnout, the rear tires jumped in the air on the launch as Loftin pedalled a couple of times, dropping cylinders and finally shutting off to a slower e.t. That left him outside the show in #27 with just one chance left to get back into a field.

(LEFT) Sitting near the bottom of the "B" field with a first session 4.489 on the board, Tom Furches (near lane), failed to improve, despite a decent 4.560 - 149.56, and remained in the #15 spot at the end of the evening. In the far lane, David Hill was looking to repeat his first session 4.222 effort, but lifted early and coasted to a 5.535 at less than 90 mph. He held on to his #9 spot on the ladder, at the top of the "B" field going into the final qualifying session.

(RIGHT) Despite making an attempt earlier in the session, Kris Battey shut off before staging and was allowed to pull back into line for another try. The Miner Brothers powered entry sounded strong, but pedalled his way to a slightly better 4.893 - 141.19 to remain in the #21 spot in the bottom half of the "C" field.

The final car to run on the evening was Howard Seldon in the "Proclaimer" making another licensing pass. He pedalled it several times on the burnout, before leaving hard, pedalling twice more, and lighting up the scoreboard with a 5.35 - 136.70 time and speed. And that was a wrap for the second round of qualifying.

After the session, the "A" field e.t.'s ranged from Kirk Williams's 4.757 (#1 spot) to Jade Cook in the #8 position. On top of the "B" field was David Hill at a solid 4.222 in the #9 spot, while holding down the #16 bump spot was Mike Buchanan with his first session 4.513 pass. The "C" field started with #17 Jordan Ballew, at 4.514 and ended with Robin Rish in the #24 slot with a 5.148 elapsed time. Sitting on the outside some series regulars, with Chris Schneider and Chuck Loftin very capable of moving into the "B" field at least.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS Qualifying - Round ONE

We've got the first session photos and captions posted below and will start working on the second round of qualifying from Friday evening later this afternoon. Stay tuned for that report and the final session from Saturday afternoon. And we'll have some bonus photos from Dale Fackler to share with you later.

(LEFT) First out of the lanes was Connecticut's Wayne Hofmann in the big-block Chevy powered "China Syndrome" car.

(RIGHT) Paired up with Hofmann was Daniel Butherus in his season debut of an all-new combination. It's got a twin-turboed 572-cid Rodeck for motivation and it should fly once they get on top of the tuneup. It sounded nasty as it spooled up and left hard before running into trouble and coasting to a 6.11 at 79.95 mph. On the far side, Hofmann put down a solid opening pass of 4.468 - 158.50 to stake his claim for a spot in the "B" field.

(LEFT) A good close race to the finish line developed in the next pairing, as Colorado's Tony Arcuri (near lane) pushed his Thunderbird bodied "Firefighter" to the top of the list with a solid 4.351 - 164.51. Not far behind in the far lane was Danny Smith in the "Snafu" entry, stopping the clocks at 4.394 - 161.92 to move into the #2 spot on the ladder.

(RIGHT) Debuting a new carbon fibre, and still unwrapped, Vega body, Mike Buchanan made a solid pass in his "Hombre", with a 4.513 - 162.45 pass. Not shown, on the far side was Jordan Ballew who was just a tick behind on the clocks with a 4.514 - 156.32 set of numbers.

(LEFT) Getting out of shape on the burnout, the orange and black flamed "Back In Black" GTO of Alex Barker ran into more trouble on the run as he launched into instant tire shake and shutoff before getting to the finish line.

(RIGHT) Running alongside Barker was the "Runnin' Down A Dream" car of Matt Nissen, and he had a much better result than Barker, as he laid down a 5.016 - 155.31 to grab the #7 spot on the list. However, with more than 20 cars waiting to run, that spot was certain to be only temporary.

(LEFT) Seen completing his burnout, Robin Rish in the Camaro-bodied "Blown Retirement" entry, didn't really get up on the tires as the car laboured down the track to a 5.076 - 139.36 clocking. That put him in the #7 spot as a total of eight cars had an e.t. at that point.

(RIGHT) Not having similar luck, Chris "The Flying Butcher" Schneider broke shortly after the launch and received NTR and NSR (no time or speed recorded) as he failed to reach the finish line. That made two cars in a row to fail to get down the left lane. Oddly enough, the crew elected to push the car back to the pits instead of towing it down to the top end turnout and making the longer trip back.

(LEFT) Things started changing quickly as David Hill piloted "Zeus" to the top of the list with a new low e.t. (of the moment) at 4.225 - 166.48 clocking. Not shown in the far lane was the "Burnin' Love" Nova of Mississippi's Michael "Toad" Neal who grabbed the #8 spot with a decent 4.828 - 145.20 clocking.

(RIGHT) Launching hard with the wheels up was "Hot Rod Herbie" Justin Herbst in his sinister looking "Executioner" in the near lane. He put down a solid 4.608 - 153.84 that placed him momentarily in the #7 spot. Trailing him off the line in the far lane was the Mustang-bodied "Pony Up" of Danny Mann, who stopped at half track, restarted (onboard starter) and idled across the finish line, but didn't receive an elapsed time.

(LEFT) Two of the heavy hitters came out next, with North Dakota's Jim Chase in the beautiful classis '57 Chevy "Wicked Quick" in the left lane. He shut off just before the finish line but still managed the second best time of the session - to this point - with a great 4.013 - 183.89 showing on the scoreboards.

(RIGHT) Laying down the first 3-second pass of the event was the defending series champion, Kirk Williams in the Williams Brothers Racing "200 Proof", as he blitzed the timers with a very strong 3.818 - 201.43 to take the top spot in the "A" field.

(LEFT) Showing off with a solid burnout, the Will Hanna-tuned, Keith Zimmerer driven "Penny Pincher 02" was back in action after a two race absence waiting for a new supercharger.

(RIGHT) Leaving first by quite a bit in the near lane, Zimmerer bounced Williams out of the top spot with a new low e.t. of the session at a brilliant 3.781, paired with a speed of "only" 192.25 to shake things up at the top of the charts. That moved the bump spot for the "A" field down to Mike Buchanan's 4.513 pass. But with still at least ten more cars waiting in the lanes, Buchanan was certain to be bumped down to the "B" field.

(LEFT) Things got a little weird when the lights went green as Clay Cunningham (near lane) shot off the line in his "Still Crazy" entry, and ran strong for a few hundred feet before clicking it to a 4.737 - 110.73. He missed the last two races waiting for parts to arrive and probably took it easy on this pass to save wear and tear on the equipment.

(RIGHT) Hoping to keep both sides shiny, as he's kissed the guardwall on both sides at the last two events, Jesse Clark kept his Monte Carlo-bodied car mostly in the groove before shutting off a little early, stopping the clocks with a good 4.103 at only 146.78 to take the #4 spot in the "A" field.

(LEFT) Running a full-on Top Alcohol Camaro-bodied entry, Christine Foster experienced severe tire shake shortly after launching, pedalled it once, then gave up on the run to the tune of a 5.170 - 98.69 to take a place at the top of the "C" field.

(RIGHT) Leaving first in the near lane, Kris Battey pushed the "Batmobile" to a so-so 4.916 - 140.30 to take the #16 spot on the list, while in the far lane, Colorado's Steve Griboski had a troubled (for him) run in his nitro burning "Mile-High Express" early model Mustang, as he could only muster a 4.382 - 169.78 to take the #7 spot in the "A" field. His run moved the "A" bump spot down to a 4.394, with still more cars left in the lanes and ready to lower that number.

(LEFT) Next up were a pair of Top Ten runners, with points leader Tom Furches (far lane) in the Firebird-bodied "Made In America", facing series rookie Casey Geeslin (#7 in points) in the hot looking Camaro-bodied "Gambler" (near lane). Neither racer got the numbers they wanted, as Geeslin had to pedal at the 60' mark, then got on it hard to stop the clocks at 4.576 - 172.65. The e.t. wasn't the best, but the speed was seriously fast.

(RIGHT) With only one more car waiting behind him in the lanes, the gorgeous "Man O' War" of Oklahoma's Shayne Lawson was looking to blast into the top half of the "A" field and he did just that with a very strong 3.840 - 198.50 to take the #3 position. The Ken Singleton tuneup was obviously continuing to pay dividends for the team.

The last of 29 cars to make an attempt in the first qualifying session was Jeff Cameron in the "War Machine" (aka: Jake's Speed Shop), left very hard with a .990 time at 60', but started heading towards the centerline, and took out the 330' timing block to DQ the run. The scoreboard read 4.603 - 144.29 but it was all for naught with the centerline infraction.

With the first round of qualifying in the books, the "A" field runners ranged from Keith Zimmerer in at 3.781, down to Steve Griboski at a 4.382. The "B" field started with Danny Smith with a 4.394, and ended with Lance Van Hauen coming in at 4.687. In the "C" field, the numbers started from Clay Cunningham at 4.737, then trailed off down to Chuck Loftin in the #24 spot at 6.661. Below him were three drivers that didn't reach the finish line, one that broke on the burnout, and one that crossed the centerline. With the second session coming in the evening, under cooler conditions and possibly better bite, the qualifying numbers were almost certain to improve.

It's a beautiful sunny Sunday morning in Kearney, NB. A perfect day for a drag race, but unfortunately, the 4th annual Funny Car Chaos Nationals eliminations were rained out on Saturday evening and won't be happening today. In the FCC world, a rain date isn't the day after a scheduled event, but in this case, nearly two months later. It was decided to postpone eliminations until the Mo-Kan race on September 1st and 2nd, and run them concurrently with the three qualifying rounds at that event. Sounds like it could turn into real chaos, along the lines of the combined Epping and Bristol NHRA national events earlier this year.

Despite last night's rainout, we've got photos from all three rounds of qualifying from the 32 cars in attendance. However, with two new racers licensing, and one testing, and some breakage, there were only enough healthy cars left to fill three fields, instead of the four that have been common this season. We'll be posting pics and results from qualifying over the next few days, and will have it finished by Tuesday evening. Just in time to get ready for a trio of big events next weekend. That will include the final DODGE Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals (Morrison, CO), the third of four Nitro Chaos events at Mo-Kan Dragway (Asbury, MO), and a doubleheader NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Wooburn, OR.

We will have "BIG" Bob Snyder at the Mo-Kan race, and our fingers are still crossed hoping that we'll have a photo credential for our Colorado correspondent, Dale Fackler to shoot from the starting line at the Mile-Highs. And if we really wanted to, Bobby Thunder could make the short trip down to Woodburn for the Western Region races, but the travel budget is still committed to next month's NHRA Heritage Series event at Boise (ID)'s Firebird Raceway: the 52nd annual Nightfire Nationals.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS

There's a nice article on how well the Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos series are doing this season. Check out the story on Competition Plus.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY U.S.A.

July 4, 1776 - July 4, 2023 - 247 YEARS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!

July 1, 1867 - July 1, 2023 - 156 YEARS

Another weekend... another NHRA National Event

Race number NINE on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule is in the books after the successful conclusion of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at aptly named Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH. Featuring all four of NHRA's PRO categories, plus Pro Mod, the Top Alcohol classes and eight sportsman eliminators, it was a great event that dealt with weather delays but managed to finish on time Sunday afternoon with some creative modificatons to the originally published schedule.

We're too busy working on filling in the blanks in our event coverage of the past few months and until that's done we're going to concentrate on that instead of bringing much news in detail about events we're not covering in detail. Scroll down and see how things are progressing on "operation catchup".

It's turning into another weather affected weekend for NHRA as the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals as there were numerous rain delays on Friday and already one - albeit a short one - so far today. The forecast is for possible thunderstorms this afternoon and tomorrow's forecast is looking very ominous from noon onwards. The Top Alcohol Funny Cars completed their first (of two scheduled) qualifying session yesterday, but only three pairs - six cars - of the 24 entered, were able to run before rain shut down proceedings for nearly six hours. When the track was finally dry enough to run, at 9:00 pm, there was only time for the nitro cars, Funny Car and Top Fuel to run.

So far today, sportsman cars ran throughout the morning, with one short rain timeout during Top Sportsman eliminations, but all the Top Alcohol cars got to run. There is one more session scheduled for the dragsters, but the Funny Cars are done until eliminations start. With only 14 cars entered, and all of them having a timeslip, it was an easy decision to save the racers money and the event organizers some valuable track time.

We've posted photos and captions from the final qualifying session and the first round of eliminations from the Bandimere Speedway NHRA Lucas Oil Series "Thunder On The Mountain" event that ran last weekend. Scroll down to see them. We'll have the semi-final photos and wrapup from the event posted tomorrow.

Thunder On The Mountain - Bandimere Speedway - June 15 - 17, 2023

Following a test session on Thursday, and a complete rainout on Friday, the Central Region Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and Division Five race got underway at Bandimere Speedway (Morrison, CO) on Saturday. While the pits weren't full of Top Alcohol cars, the ones in attendance were ready to put on another great show for the Colorado fans. A total of eight dragsters and six Funny Cars appeared, and we've got photos, courtesy of Dale Fackler and descriptions (courtesy of NHRA.com and NHRA.tv, and of course, Drag Race Central.

Today's post will focus on the Top Alcohol cars, but we'll bring you a great selection of pics from the Sportsman categories that filled out the show with some great performances from the Top Dragster and Top Sportsman entries, and the always entertaining wheelstanding Super Stock and Stock racers. We'll wrap up our coverage with the entire event highlights in the Features section of the website later in the week. For now, enjoy the Top Alcohol action.

Top Alcohol Dragster - Qualifying Session #1

The first pair out of the staging lanes saw Nick Spiegel (shown above) running against Bob Button (not shown). Unfortunately, Button lost fire at the end of the burnout, turning the first pair into a single for Spiegel. The "Peformance Truck" team car, owned by James Stevens and driven by Spiegel, ran into serious tire shake just past the 60' mark and coasted down track to a 12.054 - 65.69 clocking.

(LEFT) The first side-by-side run of qualifying saw California's Chris Demke in the "Peen-Rite" car of Jerry Maddern go to the top of the ladder with a solid 5.539 - 264.75 to open his weekend on a high note.

(RIGHT) Not faring quite as well was Nebraska's James Stevens, who had to work the steering to stay in the groove and stopped the clocks at a decent 5.750 - 246.66 to slot in behind Demke's #1 qualifying shot.

(LEFT) Finishing up the first session for the dragsters was Canada's Shawn Cowie in the ultra-familiar "Mundie's Towing" entry, still fighting for his first national/world championship in the category. After two consecutive regional victories to start the 2023 season, Shawn was looking for a third win to maximize his regional points for the year. He started strongly here with a very good 5.490 - 264.86 to knock Demke off the top of the qualifying chart.

(RIGHT) Cowie's run was good but in the other lane, defending world champion Joey Severance got to the finish line first with an excellent 5.420 - 266.95 to take the #1 spot going into the second, and final, qualifying session.

As reported above, here is the scoreboard evidence from the final pair of dragsters in the first qualifying session. Cowie's numbers are on the right side, while Severance's are on the left.

Top Alcohol Funny Car - Qualifying Session #1

Leading off for the funny cars was Colorado's Doug Schneider in the still unpainted/unwrapped "Milliken Monster", and he took it to the finish line with a decent 5.946 - 241.97 to grab a spot in the field.

Facing him in the other lane was Jim Whiteley with his "J & A Services" entry, and he eclipsed Schneider's time with a very good 5.817 - 253.18 to take at least a temporary hold on the top spot on the ladder.

The other pair of the session saw last year's #2 car in the championship standings, Shane Westerfield, (near lane) driving the late Rick Jackson entry make his second appearance of the season. He left the line too early (a malady that afflicted him in the latter half of the 2022 season) with an -.036 reaction but rang up a great 5.781 - 251.58 clocking to overtake the first pair on the ladder. In the far lane, Christine Foster had some tire shake early and clicked it off before half track, easing down track to a 6.962 - 138.84 pass.

The final pairing of the round featured defending national champion Doug Gordon (near lane) in the "Beta Cycles" entry facing the Midwest terror, Kyle Smith (far lane) in his "PC Disposal" car. Both cars struck the tires almost instantly and limped across the finish line with nearly identical mid 7-second elapsed times. And that wrapped up the first qualifying session for the alcohol cars.

As a bit of a bonus for the fans, Kayla Zadel came out for a licensing pass in a Top Alcohol Dragster. We have no details on the car but it appears to be late model equipment and capable of competitive performances. Her pass resulted in "no time recorded" as she left before the tree was activated, as the car went through the stage beams when she brought the revs up. After launching, the car made a move towards the wall before half track and coasted across the finish line.

Top Alcohol Dragster - Qualifying Session #2 - FINAL

(LEFT)It certainly looks like the Greg Hunter car, but it's actually Eugene Tumbarello making his first NHRA appearance in seven years. This was his second attempt to make a pass, but just like his first try, an oil leak developed after the burnout and the crew was forced to shut the car off.

(RIGHT)Although his hometown is listed as Gulfport, Florida, Bob Button has been running out west (Phoenix, Las Vegas and Denver), trying to sort out the electronic fuel injection system on his blown alcohol combination. Despite some setbacks and damaged parts, the car has been running better but he shook the tires hard on the launch and shut off to a 17-second pass.

(LEFT)Both cars in this next pairing came into the session hoping to move up, but Chris Demke in Jerry Maddern's "Peen-Rite" car shook hard and clicked it off to a 10-second clocking to remain in the #3 spot. On the far side, James Stevens made a full pass in his "Performance Truck" entry, but only improved half a tenth, from 5.75 to 5.70, and stayed in the #4 spot. That meant a rematch between these two teams in the first round of eliminations, with Demke holding lane choice.

(RIGHT) The final pair of qualifying featured the top two racers on the ladder, with Joey Severance (far lane) in the "J&A Services" car holding down the top spot, while Shawn Cowie (near lane) was driving the "Mundie's Towing" car. Shawn left before the green and powered away from a tire shaking Severance, improving to a 5.443 - 267.37, but remained in the #2 position. However, his speed was best of the meet to that point.

Top Alcohol Funny Car - Qualifying Session #2 - FINAL

(LEFT)After a troubled 7-second pass in the first session, Doug Gordon was looking to jump up the charts to the top spot going into eliminatisns. It didn't happen as the tires started smoking on the launch and he limped down track to a 15-second clocking to sit near the bottom of the ladder in the #5 spot.

(RIGHT)After suffering irreprable breakage in the first session, Doug Schneider was a no-show, allowing Christine Foster to take a bye run in her second qualifying pass. After a hard launch, the car started moving around, as Christine pedalled her way to a 6.777 - 225.21 to hold on to the #4 spot. Interestingly enough, with Schneider holding down the #3 position, that set her up for a competition bye in the first round.

(LEFT)The last pair of alcohol qualifying featured Shane Westerfield (not shown) facing off against Jim Whiteley. Neither driver got down the track in good order as tire shake ruled the day again, limiting them to 9 and 10-second passes, respectively.

(RIGHT)Coming out to make another licensing pass, Kayla Zadel was able to get off the line in good order, pulling the front wheels up on the launch, but she was off the throttle at the 330' mark and coasted down to a 9-second pass on her second attempt of the day.

Top Alcohol Dragster - Eliminations - Round One

(LEFT)First out of the lanes for eliminations, world champion Joey Severance faced off against Bob Button (not shown), and despite leaving second by a few hundredths, took an easy win with a very good 5.438 - 265.59 over Button's competitive 5.694 - 251.72 effort. The win earned Severance a bye run in the semi-finals of the six-car field.

(RIGHT)The closest matched pair in qualifying, the #3 car of Chris Demke (far lane) and the #4 car of James Stevens faced off next. At the green, it was Demke away first by a small (.039 to .051) margin.

(LEFT)By the 330' mark, Demke had pulled into a half car length lead and continued to stretch it all the way to the finish line as Stevens crossed the line in a cloud of piston smoke.

(RIGHT) The scoreboards really told the tale as Demke's superior 5.520 - 260.91 (right) easily overcame Stevens' trailing 5.711 - 246.53 (left).

The final pair of the round matched Shawn Cowie against Nick Spiegel (not shown). After two troubled runs in qualifying produced a 12-second "best", Speigel got off the line first against Cowie (.060 to .124) and matched Cowie's 60' time, but it all came undone before the 300' mark, as Spiegel slowed to a 7.012 - 154.37 to end his weekend. In the other lane, Cowie sped away to a convincing 5.488 - 264.08 to hold lane choice against Demke in the semi-final round.

Top Alcohol Funny Car - Eliminations - Round One

(LEFT) Opening eliminations from the #1 qualifying position, Shane Westerfield was looking to advance to the bye run in the semifinal round, but he was facing a tough opponent, Kyle Smith (not shown). It all went wrong for Westerfield from the green as he left second, fell half a tenth behind at the 60' mark, then shook and headed towards the wall before the 330' mark. He shut off to an 8-second clocking, while Smith advanced to the semifinal, and in all likelihood, the final round with his first representative run of the event at 5.764 - 247.20 for the win.

(RIGHT)Laying down a hard burnout before his first round race was Jim Whiteley, racing on his home track and starting eliminations from the #2 spot on the ladder. He had a tough customer in the other lane though and a win was far from assured. He improved slightly from his qualifying times with a very good 5.790 - 252.80 but it wasn't enough to get past his opponent.

(LEFT) Facing Whiteley was defending world champion Doug Gordon, but he had failed to get down the track in both qualifying attempts. Tire shake and tire smoke was the tale of those runs. The team obviously got thing sorted out for eliminations as he blasted out low e.t. and top speed of meet at 5.706 - 257.24 to easily overcome Whiteley's strong, but losing pass.

(RIGHT) The scoreboards tell the tale as Gordon missed resetting the track record by little more than a hundredth of a second. The gap at the stripe was less than two car lengths in the close race.

Closing out the round was Christine Foster in her "Chambless Roofing" entry on a competition bye as scheduled opponent Doug Schneider broke on his first qualifying pass and could not make the call. Foster picked up nearly one second over her 6.77 qualifying time, pounding out a great 5.832 - 250.92 despite a little wiggle towards the centerline at half track. The win put her in the semifinals against Doug Gordon, with the "Beta Cycles" driver holding lane choice.

With two days worth of racing compressed into one, the semifinals for the Top Alcohol cars were pushed into the late evening, with temperatures dropped drastically and the track tightening up by the minute. It was so cold that our photographer, Dale Fackler, was barely able to keep the camera from shaking as he took the following shots. He went to the parking lot to attempt to warm up before the finals but it was just too cold to return to the frigid grandstands, so we unfortunately don't have final round photos.

Top Alcohol Dragster - Eliminations Round Two (Semi-Final)

Advancing directly to the finals from his top qualifying spot, Joey Severance didn't take it easy on his bye run as he pounded out a new low e.t. and top speed of the meet at 5.406 - 268.01. It got a little tense on the top end as the car made a slow drift toward the centerline but kept it in his lane all the way. Severance's run came close to, but not better than Shawn Cowie's track record numbers of 5.366 - 269.08, set last year at this event.

It was shaping up to be a close race in the only pairing of the semifinal as Shawn Cowie (near lane) held lane choice by only five hundredths over challenger Chris Demke (far lane). Demke left first and outran Cowie at every incremental down track as he took a convincing 5.535 - 263.46 over Cowie's much slower (by his standards) 5.633 - 261.37 effort. That set up the final round with Severance holding lane choice over Demke.

Top Alcohol Funny Car - Eliminations Round Two (Semi-Final)

(LEFT)Despite a much improved run in her first round bye, Christine Foster (far lane) faced a formidable opponent in Doug Gordon (near lane). It was virtually over right on the starting line as Gordon left first - by a bunch - with an .090 light to Christine's very late .237 reaction. She compounded her problems with serious tire shake early in the run and shut off to a 8.930 - 96.76. In the other lane, Gordon ran away to another round win at a solid 5.718 - 256.84 to advance to the final.

(RIGHT)Ready to face Gordon in that final was Kyle Smith, who earned the semifinal bye after getting past Shane Westerfield in the first round of eliminations. He ran hard to half track before easing off the throttle and coasting across the finish line at 6.117 - 179.09 for the automatic win. With both lanes appearing identical, ceding lane choice didn't appear to be a real detriment for Smith.

The final rounds were worth waiting for as in the Top Alcohol Funny Car match, Doug Gordon reset his own track record with an awesome (for the altitude) 5.691 - 256.80 to take an easy victory over Kyle Smith. The two drivers left nearly together and Smith had a small lead at the 60' mark, but Gordon had pulled even with him at the 330' mark. At that point Gordon took over as Smith's car started moving around, forcing him to shut down to a losing 6.205 - 181.30, as he coasted across the finish line.

The evening finished with the Top Alcohol Dragster final and it pitted current world champion Joey Severance against former (2010 & 2014) world champion Chris Demke. On paper it was a mismatch, with Severance holding all the quick runs and Demke a full tenth of a second behind. And there was nothing for Demke on reaction times as Severance consistently cuts great lights. When the ambers flashed, Severance left first by a few thousandths (.036 to .042), but Demke was close at the 60' mark. However, he started heading for the centerline around the 300' mark and clicked it off to a 7.712 - 115.91 loss, while Severance turned on the winlight with another great pass at 5.417 - 267.48 as he earned his 47th Lucas Oil Series trophy.

Monday Morning Musings

It was a busy weekend of racing, with events in three different sanctions at locations spread across the country. Headlining the activities, at least in terms of competitor numbers was stop #4 on the 2023 FUNNY CAR CHAOS schedule. A total of 33 cars and drivers descended on Cordova Dragway for two days and nights of wild action, culminating with four 8-car fields running eliminations under the lights on Saturday night. Unfortunately, our usually intrepid FCC photographer, "Big" Bob Snyder had to skip the event as he's still in what is turning into a long recovery from a hip replacment.

The next event on the FCC schedule is the 4th annual Funny Car Chaos Nationals at Kearney Raceway, taking place July 7-8th, followed one week later by the third Nitro Chaos race of the season at "Smokin" Mo-Kan Raceway in Asbury. MO. With the two races just one week apart, Snyder will move heaven and earth to make both events and bring us all the photos from both races. Stay tuned for those reports in mid-July.

Out west, at Bandimere Speedway, the final (sadly) Thunder On The Mountain event ran at Bandimere Speedway. Combining a Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Division Five doubleheader with a Central Regional race, the Denver race fans were treated to a great show, despite a Friday rainout. A very full day of racing action on Saturday was more than enough to satisfy the fans appetite and some great performances made the show an exciting way to spend Father's Day weekend. Next up for the track is the final Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals, coming up next month. We're crossing our fingers, hoping that our Colorado photographer, Dale Fackler, will be able to cover the event for us.

The third race on the schedule over the weekend was the renamed Wally Parks NHRA Nostalgia Nationals at Bowling Green, KY's beautiful Beech Bend Raceway Park. With full fields of Nostalgia Top Fuel and Funny Cars headlining the show, the Kentucky race fans had a great experience after last year's minimally attended (by the Top Fuel racers) Holley National Hot Rod Reunion. This time the dragsters put on a great show, and the 11 Funny Cars made it the best nosalgia flopper fest ever seen east of the Mississippi river. Sadly for Canadian racing fans, the hard trying Victoria, BC fuel racer, "Flyin" Phil Ruskowski lost in the first round of eliminations to multi-time Hot Rod Heritage Series national champion Jim Murphy.

We'll have more to report on the Heritage Series race later in the week, but for now, congratulations to the Austin & O'Brien Funny Car team, with Bobby Cottrell driving, for winning, and to the "Great Expectations III" team of Tyler and Bobby Hilton on another dominating win as they continued the winning streak that started last season after they switched over to late-model Hemi power in their dragster.

NAPA Auto Parts NIGHT OF FIRE & THUNDER - May 20, 2023

The latest - and sadly, probably the last - NAPA Auto Parts "Night of Fire and Thunder" went off on Saturday, May 20th at Bandimere Speedway. Six of the eight scheduled Nostalgia Top Fuel cars were in attendance, along with a pair of Nostalgia Funny Cars. The highlight - and lowlight - of the meet was Steve Griboski track record destroying 5.736 - 250.00 pass in his "Mile-High Express" '65 Mustang Nostaliga Funny Car. The lowlight happened just past the finish line as the throttle stuck WIDE open, forcing Steve to pull the fuel shutoff, which grenaded the blower and the body. A true very good news and very bad news event to be sure.

The Top Fuel portion of the show saw Wisconsin's Jimi Young in the "Young Guns Racing" entry take the event win over uber-veteran, Californian Jim Murphy in his mutli-championship winning "WW2" entry. Young also set the track Nostalgia Top Fuel track record with a best e.t. of 5.79. We don't have any exact details on the performances but the photos below will tell the story.

Coming all the way out from Berwyn, IL, Mike Taylor brought his 5-second running, short-stroke Donovan to Bandimere for the first time and put down some hard runs.

(LEFT) Two green cars lining up in this pairing, saw Illinoi's Tim Cullinan (far lane) in his dragster (instead of his usual "Irish Car Bomb" Funny Car), lining up against the six-decades of fuel racing - and counting - California veteran Jim Murphy in his very familiar "WW2" entry.

(RIGHT) It's Murphy (almost) by himself in this shot, as he's left on Cullinan by a bit and pulled away to a convincing victory.

Coming up from his home base in Abilene, Texas, Michael Anderson pushed hard in his still new 2022 chassied fueler.

Closing out the first round was a match between Wisconsin's Jimi Young (near lane) in his "Young Guns Racing" car, against California's Shawn Vanhorn (far lane) in the "Titan Engineering Special". Young took the win as Vanhorn was still working on the tuneup in the Titan car.

(LEFT) Between rounds of the Fuel cars, some of the local Top Dragster competitors came out, including Betsy Peek of the "Peek Family Racing" team. The family has been synonomous with dragsters in Colorado for several decades, from their long run in Top Fuel racing to the current very quick and fast dragster driven by third-generation racer Betsy. Her best numbers of the night came in the first round with a very good 6.107 - 231.91 pass.

(RIGHT) Another member of Colorado fuel racing "royalty", Landon Kaiser in the "Kaiser Brothers" entry didn't fare as well as he failed to crack the tough high 6-second bump spot in the Madcap Quick 16 field.

(LEFT) Similarly to Kaiser, Don McIntosh III in his front-engined blown big-block Chevy entry failed to make the cut in the Madcap Quick 16.

(RIGHT) Running a very cool looking Top Sportsman '57 Chevy Belair, Duane Doffing qualified solidly in the Get Biofuel Quick 16 show, and went all the way to the final round. Dialled in at 7.25 and 7.26 in earlier rounds before setting it at 7.31 in the final, Doffing fell a little short with a very good 7.352 - 183.22, coupled with a brilliant .014 reaction time, but it wasn't quite enough to turn on the winlight.

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As promised, here's the photos from the first round of eliminations in Nitro Chaos and Funny Car Chaos at the "Chaos In The Cornfield" event at Eddyville Raceway Park. We'll fill in the captions later today, then get busy with our coverage of the final (sadly) Night of Fire and Thunder at the soon to become extinct Bandimere Speedway. However, the track is far from closed yet, as a Central Region NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event is running there this coming weekend, and next month, the final edition of the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals is on tap.

NITRO CHAOS - Round 1 Eliminations - "A" Field

(LEFT) Eliminations opened with the #4 Pete Dove in his "Back From The Ashes" AA/Fuel Altered (near lane) meeting the #5 qualifier Joey Haas in the "Nimrod 2.0" AA/Funny Car (far lane). Haas left first by a .101 to .130 margin, but that was the only lead he had as Haas overpowered the track at the 300' mark and shut down to a 4.430 - 117.43 clocking. Keeping the loud pedal down all the way, Pete Dove blitzed the timers with his best run of the event, a fabulous 3.564 - 218.55 to show the capabilities of his car. His .915 sixty foot time was some serious stuff.

(RIGHT) The second pair of the round saw two of the Randy Meyer fleet running against each other, with Megan Meyer in the near lane against Matt Sackman in the far lane. It was another case of leave first, finish second, as Sackman laid down an .033 light against Megan's .170 reaction time. Sackman ran very hard down low, with a .923 sixty foot time, but he puffed the tires at half track and lifted, coasting to a 4.212 - 123.56 time. Meanwhile, Ms. Meyer was running away with a great 3.626 e.t. coupled with a big 221.78 top end speed.

(LEFT) The third Randy Meyer dragster came out next, as Rachel Meyer (far lane) was matched with another A/Fuel Dragster. Her opponent, Todd Bruce (near lane), driving Canadian Cliff Bakx's dragster. "The Bull" left first by a .029 to .044 margin, but Meyer's horsepower pulled out the close win with a 3.613 - 219.73 to Burce's very close 3.634 - 216.66 pass. The margin at the finish line was just five thousandths of a second in one of the closest races of the season in Chaos competition.

(RIGHT) The round closed with a classis Fuel Altered vs Funny Car match, with the Illinois flopper of Dale Creasy Jr. (near lane), facing Texan Jody Austin in the "Bushwhacker" fuel altered in the far lane. The elapsed times were close, but Austin's .349 reaction time, versus Creasy's .120 launch, left him far behind immediately. They both charged to the finish line with Creasy turning on the winlight with a great 3.588 - 193.22 as Austin trailed with a very competitive 3.642 - 188.84 pass. But when you have a nearly quarter second r.t. disadvantage it's very difficult to make up that deficit.

NITRO CHAOS - Round 1 Eliminations - "B" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Round 1 Eliminations - "A" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Round 1 Eliminations - "B" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Round 1 Eliminations - "C" Field

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BONUS: Here's the photos from the second round of eliminations from Eddyville, starting with the Nitro Chaos racers, then leading into Funny Car Chaos. Captions this evening. Stay tuned!

NITRO CHAOS - Round 2 Eliminations - "A" Field

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NITRO CHAOS - Round 2 Eliminations - "B" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Round 2 Eliminations - "A" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Round 2 Eliminations - "B" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Round 2 Eliminations - "C" Field

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Yes, we know that the "Chaos in the Cornfield" doubleheader event ended TWO WEEKS ago, but we've got an excuse for not posting the balance of our coverage in a more timely manner. Simply put, we spent a week in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia playing golf and touring a small fraction of the 250 wineries in the region. Now we're back and rested and it's time to get back to drag racing. We're starting with what could be called "Chute Shot Sunday", but the calendar is reminding us that it is Monday already. Still to come (tomorrow) are the photos from the first round of eliminations for the Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos competition.

And, we've got some photos from the most recent Bandimere Speedway event, featuring nitro funny cars and fuel altereds. They come courtesy of our Colorado correspondent, Dale Fackler, who has been kind enough to provide us with some great pcitures over the last few years. They will be posted later this week.

NITRO CHAOS - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

Leading off the final session were the "nitro nasties", with 23 cars trying to fit into the two (A &B) 8-car fields. That meant seven racers were going to be spectators when eliminations began in the late afternoon. In the top spot on the ladder, with an awesome 3.401 - 215.21, was NHRA "Big Show" racer, Dale Creasy Jr.. On the other end of the scale was the #16 qualifier (bottom of the "B" field), Andy Fangman, driving a blown fuel Pro Mod. (Insanity comes in many different shapes and sizes, doesn't it?). Fangman was hanging on to the bubble with a very respectiable 4.238 - 174.62, but knew he would need to run quicker, possibly into the 3-second zone, to hang onto a berth in the elimination show.

(LEFT) The first pair to run were John Umlauf Jr. in the "Mass Chaos" AA/Fuel Altered (left side) facing Joey Haas in his "Nimrod 2.0" (right side). Despite launching first, Umlauf finished second by quite a margin, slowing from his earlier 3.990 pass on Saturday, to a 4.02 - 177.40 that left him in the #11 position, and almost certain to stay in the "B" field. On the right side though, Joey Haas picked up more than two tenths e.t., with a very strong 3.658 - 200.18 to vault from #9 to #5, and a spot in the middle of the "A" field.

(RIGHT) It was another Fuel Altered versus Funny Car matchup in the second pairing. On the left side, the "Mighty Mouse" small-block Chevy powered entry of Anthony Whitfield. On the right side, it was Levi Keenen in his Plymouth Arrow-bodied "Illinois Thunder" entry. Sitting in the #14 position after the second session, Keenen pushed his way into the 3's with a very good 3.991 - 189.18 that elevated him to the #12 spot on the list, at least temporarily. Making an even bigger jump up the ladder was Whitfield, as he came into the final session in the #21 spot with a 6-second best on Friday. He pulled it out though on his last shot with a great 3.887 - 194.89 to climb all the way to the #10 spot as the round continued.

(LEFT) After the last pair ran, the bump spot for the elimination fields had dropped from a 4.238 (Andy Fangman) to a 4.064 (Rachel Meyer). This pair had Dave Brown in the injected Donovan-powered "Beedy & Malloy" car (left side), facing the blown fuel "Brooks & Wheeler" entry, with Gary Wheeler Jr. at the wheel. Both needed to make some serious performance gains, with Brown in the #20 position, and Wheeler just ahead of him in the 19th spot. Staying in front all the way from the starting line to the braking area, Wheeler pounded out a great 3.792 - 186.34 to catapult to #10 and a solid spot near the top of the "B" field. In the other lane, Brown made a small improvement from his Saturday best of 4.720 to a 4.673 - 137.40 that kept him at #20 and well outside the show.

(RIGHT) The next pair, both from Randy Meyer Racing saw Rachel Meyer (Curl) (foreground), and Matt Sackman (background) in Julie Nataas's regular ride, facing off. It was do-or-die for Rachel as she needed to run better than 4.027 to bump into the "B" field. Sackman, meanwhile, was solidly ensconced in the "A" field with an earlier 3.727 pass. Meyer accomplished her goal of getting down the track with a competitive run as she blasted out a 3.722 - 212.87 to pass Sackman on the ladder and take the #6 spot in the "A" field. Sackman ran hard for a few hundred feet before losing traction and shutting off to a 4.34 at 116.91, and falling one spot on the qualifying list.

(LEFT) With the "B" field bump spot now down to an incredible 4.027, both Dave Hill in the "Mad Max" (foreground) and Tim Cullinan in the "Irish Car Bomb" Camaro (background) both had to step up. Hill had the biggest..... Hill (pun UNintended) to climb, sitting dead last on the charts with a 6.92 best, while Cullinan wasn't far off the mark with a previous best of 4.082, less than a tenth outside the field. When the lights came down, Cullinan rumbled to a decent 4.09 - 163.64 that didn't come close to making the show. In the other lane, Hill stopped the clocks with a 3.95 at only 149.15, as he struck the guardwall before the finish line and nullified his run.

(RIGHT) A closer picture of Tim Cullinan slowing as he ends his weekend in the first alternate (#17) spot at the conclusion of the session.

(LEFT) That last two cars to run the session were both sitting on the outside of eliminations, with Brian Inouye in the "Frantic Fueler" sitting one notch below the bubble due to a Saturday best of 4.027 - 185.87. But to make it into the show, Inouye was going to need a 3.990 or better. He did just that, with a 3.911 - 198.68 that moved him up to #14 pending on the results of the last car to run the session.

(RIGHT) And that final racer was the almost unique "Pandas" '69 Camaro blown fuel Pro Mod of Andy Fangman. He was sitting with a best of 4.238 - 174.62 on his run card and needed to step up big time to fight his way into eliminations. Fangman made a good effort but his 4.26 - 170.65 wasn't close to what he needed. And that was it for Nitro Chaos qualifying.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

(LEFT) Running in the third pair of the session, Matt Nissen in the Corvette-bodied "Runnin' Down A Dream", (left side) was sitting just outside the "C" field in the #26 position. He failed to improve on his earlier 4.823 best, as a 5.005 - 154.96 left him well short of the 4.575 bump spot for the "C" field. Running alongside him (right side) was Mike Buchanan in the Vega, and he fell back from his earlier 4.833 best with a 4.938 - 157.58 that saw him sitting one spot behind Nissen in the #28 spot on the ladder.

(RIGHT) In the only '57 Chevy-bodied car currently running in Funny Car Chaos, the "Wicked Quick" entry of North Dakota's Jim Chase came into the session in the #7 spot, near the bottom of the "A" field, and he made a statement with an even better 3.889 at only 165.44 mph. That compared with his earlier 3.940 - 162.05, that showed there was more e.t. if he ran it hard all the way to the finish line. The pass moved him up one spot to #6 in the field, at least temporarily.

(LEFT) One of the heavy hitters when he appears, Mike Newkirk piloted his "Disturbed" entry to an excellent 3.786 - 193.13 to move up one notch to #3 in the "A" field. His pass was half a tenth quicker, but four mph slower than his Saturday best.

(RIGHT) In the next pair, Robbie Massey in the "Moats & Massey" Top Alcohol car wanted to get his #3 spot back from Newkirk, but failed to improve on his earlier 3.795 - 198.59, as he had to lift at the 330' mark and slowed to a 4.376 - 123.32 clocking.

(LEFT) Making an impact in his first Funny Car Chaos race, Jesse Clark in the unlettered Camaro bodied car, was sitting near the bottom of the "B" field with a 4.299, only good for the #14 spot. He found the tuneup he needed and bombed the scoreboards with a great 3.872 - 196.25 to advance all the way to the #7 and at least a toehold on a spot in the "A" field.

(RIGHT) Next up were the "Van Haeun Brothers", with Lance Van Hauen driving, as they looked to improve on their earlier 3.91 and 3.85 passes. It didn't quite happen as they slipped back slightly to a still very good 3.894 - 185.80 timeslip. That kept him in the #5 position in the "A" field with only a few more cars waiting in the staging lanes that had a serious shot of moving him down the ladder.

(LEFT) Driving the unique '55 Ford Crown Victoria, Tony Arcuri drove the "Firefighter" to his best numbers of the event, with a good 4.191 - 170.00 pass that advanced him from #20 (middle of the "C" field) to #12, in the middle of the "B" field.

(RIGHT) Low qualfier Jeff Cameron in the very familiar "Jake's Speed Shop" car had a firm hold on the top rung of the ladder with his 3.661 - 208.53 run on Saturday. He tried hard but just fell short of improving on those numbers with a still very good 3.735 - 206.52 pass.

(LEFT) After running a 3.73 in Friday testing, and laying down a 3.76 in the first qualifying session - that was DQ'd when he took out a finish line block - left Shayne Lawson down to his last chance to make the show after not getting down the track in the second qualifier. The Ken Singleton-tuned Mustang-bodied "Man O' War II", finally got the run they had been looking for with a great 3.785 - 201.97 to leapfrog from the very bottom of the field (#30) all the way to #3 and lane choice in the first round of "A" field eliminations.

(RIGHT) Running in the lane opposite Lawson was Mississippi's Casey Geeslin in the Camaro-bodied "Gambler". He occupied the #11 spot at the beginning of the final session, but had fallen to #14 and needed to improve a little to assure himself of a spot in the "B" field. He wasn't able to do so as his 4.369 wasn't as good as his earlier 4.273 - 171.89 pass.

(LEFT) Coming into the event in the #10 position in the FCC points standings, Colorado's Tom Furches in his "Made In America" Corvette wanted to stay near the top of the "B" field with his Saturday clocking of 4.098 - 150.45 mph. He came close with a 4.111 - 150.65; note that his speeds were down from what a low 4-second pass would normally produce. His earlier pass was good enough to hold onto the #10 spot on the ladder, giving him lane choice in the first round of eliminations.

(RIGHT) Closing out qualifying was the "Executioner" of Justin 'Hot Rod Herbie' Herbst. He was sitting in the middle of the "C" field in the #19 position with a previous best of 4.382 - 159.97 and was hoping to move up a little higher. It wasn't to be however, as his 4.405 - 161.12 wasn't quite good enough, as he remained at #19 on the ladder.

We're presenting the photos and results from last weekend's "(Double) Chaos In The Cornfield" event at Eddyville Raceway Park in a somewhat inverted, reversed, upside down, inside out order. Our first posting from the event was chronological, showing the test session from Friday night. Then we fast forwarded to the final rounds from Sunday evening. Now we've got the two qualifying sessions from Saturday, for both the Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos competitors.

Next, we'll post the semi-final rounds from Sunday afternoon, then, after a one-week break while we go wine touring in the Okanagan Valley (BC), we'll be back with the final qualifying session and first round eliminations from Sunday. It doesn't quite make sense but when we post the full event on our Features page, we'll have everything in the correct order. The captions will be filled in throughout this evening, but we may not get them all done before we leave for our road trip.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) Kicking off qualifying with his "Twist 'N Shout" entry, Neil Girot launched slowly but kept the pedal down and stopped the timers with a decent 4.722 - 160.89 to put the first set of numbers on the board.

(RIGHT) Running what appeared to be the ex-Doug Schneider "Milliken Monster", newcomer to the series, Jesse Clark left hard before lifting early as the car got out of shape, but still stopped the clocks with a solid 4.299 at only 127.05 mph. In the far lane, and partially obscured was Mike Buchanan in his fmiliar "Hombre" Vega who put down a 4.833 - 143.27 pass.

(LEFT) The next pair featured blown alcohol against injected nitro, with Jim Chase and his '57 Chevy-bodied "Wicked Quick" running strong to the finish line with a 4.366 - 179.28 effort.

(RIGHT) His opponent, NHRA Top Alcohol regular Julie Nataas in the still unwrapped A/Fuel Funny Car hesitated at the starting line, then went into immediate tire smoke and coasted to a 9.395 - 53.73 time.

(LEFT) Launching strongly enroute to the quickest run of the first four pairs, Steve Timoszyk in the beautiful Monza-bodied "Detroit Tiger" lit up the scoreboards with a 4.237 - 173.88 to put everyone on notice that he was ready to compete.

(RIGHT) A pair of blown alky Hemi-powered cars came up next, with the Mustang-bodied "Brutus", driven by Chris Schneider (near lane) was matched against the Ford Crown Victoria-bodied "Firefighter" of Colorado's Tony Arcuri. Schneider left first and drove it hard to the finish line with the first 4-teen of the day, a very good 4.178 - 171.89 to jump to the top of the list. Falling back just a little was Arcuri who stopped the clocks with a decent 4.398 - 166.05 to land in the #4 spot after the first five pairs of the session.

(LEFT) The FCC series champion from 2022, Kirk Williams, brought his all-conquering "200 Proof" to the line next, with everyone expecting the first 3-second run of the day. Staging with the revs way up, he launched hard but was smoking the tires at the 60' mark and headed towards the centerline before lifting and idling down the track to a 8.494 - 52.31 pass.

(RIGHT) Aiming to be the first into the 3's was the blown fuel Firebird-bodied "Nitro Psycho" of Texan Chuck Loftin, but he dialled into too much power, and/or clutch, and heading skyward on the launch then towards the guardrail before lifting and coasting to a 7.820 - 65.23. Not shown was the car in the other lane, making his first appearance at an FCC event in two years, as Robbie Massey in his Top Alcohol Funny Car blasted to a 3.853 - 191.57 to set the new low e.t. of the session.

(LEFT) It started looking like the left (near) lane was contributing to wheelies as Tom Furches in the "Made In America" Corvette brough the wheels up to start his run. He brought the front end down quickly but slowly drifted toward the centerline before shutting off to a 4.823 at 104.97 mph. In the far lane, the Mach I Mustang-bodied "Pony Up" entry of Danny Mann waited at the line before launching solidly and putting a 4.575 - 153.06 on the ladder.

(RIGHT) It was a case of "Double Thunder" next as Monty Stotz in his beautiful blue "Blue Thunder" Camaro (near lane) matched up against the "Ballew Thunder" Camaro of Jordan Ballew (far lane). Stopping the clocks first was Jordan Ballew with a solid 4.344 - 160.31, while Monty Stotz trailed only slightly with a good 4.424 - 150.70 effort.

(LEFT) Getting seriously sideways on the burnout, the "Atomic Punk" Camaro of Washington state's Don Knoblauch got straightened out before making his run. Still being tuned by "Big Show" nitro Funny Car racer Jeff Diehl, the Punk put down a solid early shutoff effort of 4.299 - 138.67 to take the #5 spot on the list at that point.

(RIGHT) Facing Knoblauch in the near lane was NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car racer, Lance Van Hauen, in the "Van Hauen Bros." car. Lance pounded out a #2 qualifying 3.910 - 185.49 pass to take a firm hold on a spot in the "A" field.

(LEFT) Competing in his third FCC event in his first year on the tour, Mississippi's Michael Neal in his Nova-bodied "Burnin' Love entry turned a 4.771 - 147.25 to sit near the bottom of the "B" field at this point in the session.

(RIGHT) A beautiful addition to the FCC circuit this season is the Camaro-bodied "The Gambler" of Casey Geeslin. He made a strong run but didn't receive a timeslip as his opponent, Shayne Lawson in the "Man O' War II" (not shown), took out the finish line timing blocks. Lawson did stop the timers with a 3.76 - 202 mph, but that was thrown out with his boundary violation.

(LEFT) Launching a little early (note the redlight), Connecticut's Wayne Hofmann punched out a good 4.279 - 166.67 in his Dodge Omni-bodied "China Syndrome" (near lane) to take the #6 spot on the ladder. Acing him out of the #5 spot was the (mostly obscured) "Mile-High Express" of Colorado's Steve Griboski who nearly dropped into the 3-second zone with a 4.018 - 185.19 that left him in the #3 position at the end of the session.

(RIGHT) A hard launch with the front wheels skimming the surface, the Corvette-bodied "The Executioner" of "Hot Rod Herbie" (Justin Herbst) put down a decent 4.466 - 162.22 to stake a claim for a spot in the "B" field in the #14 position.

The hard running NHRA Top Alcohol entry of Kansan Mike Newkirk lived up to its nickname "Disturbed" as that must have been what Newkirk was feeling after skating around at the 330' mark and taking out both the e.t. and mph timing blocks at the finish line. Even though a 4.09 - 151.57 showed up on the scoreboard, the times were thrown out for the centerline infraction.

And that put an end to the first qualifying session for the Funny Car Chaos racers. The "A" field numbers ranged from 3.853 (Robbie Massey) to 4.299 (Don Knoblauch), while the "B" field ran from Jordan Ballew's 4.344 to Danny Mann's 4.575. Finally, the "C" field e.t.'s started with Neil Girot's 4.722 to Dustin Bradford's 8.463. With four hard runners (Kirk Williams, Julie Nataas, Shayne Lawson, and Mike Newkirk) sitting below the #24 spot, the fields were certain to tighten considerably in the two qualifying sessions remaining.

NITRO CHAOS - Qualifying Session #1

After a very good first session of Funny Car Chaos qualfiying, the volume was cranked up LOUD when the first pair of blown fuel Nitro Chaos cars thundered through the waterbox and burned out to get their first qualifying session started.

(LEFT) Launching very hard with the header flames clearly visible in the afternoon, Dale Creasy Jr. (near lane) blasted off the line with an .891 time at the 60' mark, then lost traction at the 330' mark, but still crossed the finish line with a great 3.947 - 147.20 clocking. In the far lane, Mitch King had trouble staging the "Bone Shaker" and was timed out before launching, losing traction and shutting off with no time or speed recorded.

(RIGHT) Switching back and forth from Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos, Levi Keenen opened his weekend with the Plymouth Arrow-bodied "Illinois Thunder" with a very good 4.068 - 181.74 in his short-stroke, 413-CID NHRA Heritage Series engine combination.

(LEFT) Making his return to Chaos competition after a long absence, Pennsylvania's Jim Gifford laid down a very hard burnout in his "Svengali" entry. When the ambers flashed, he didn't waste any time getting down the track, stopping the clocks with a 3.947 - 174.49 to slot into the #2 spot behind Dale Creasy by just a few ten thousandths of a second.

(RIGHT) It didn't take long for Creasy and Gifford to drop down the ladder, as it only took 3.887 seconds at just 157.78 for Joey Haas to put the Big Show-capable "Nimrod 2.0" to the top of the heap in the #1 spot.

(LEFT) And it didn't take very long for the #1 spot to go to Pete Dove as he drove the "Back From The Ashes" fuel altered to a new low e.t. of 3.642 - 193.38. Not shown was his opponent Jody Austin in his "Bushwhacker" fuel altered, who wasn't far behind at the finish line, carding an excellent 3.745 - 171.10 for the #2 spot on the list. A pair of great side-by-side passes by a pair of very hard running AA/Fuel Altereds.

(RIGHT) It was two blown fuel Funny Cars next, as Dave Hill in the Mustang-bodied "Mad Max" tried hard, but tire shake and dropped cylinders forced him to lift early and shut off to a 6.924 - 71.74 time. Mostly obscured in the far lane was the "Irish Car Bomb" of Tim Cullinan who made a full run, clocking in at 4.082 - 169.36. Then the fun started when only one chute came out, and late, as the car went off the end of the track into the cornfield. Thankfully, unlike Dave Gallegos's car-destroying excursion into the cornfield last year, Cullinan was able to get the car stopped early and it appeared that there was no damage to the Camaro-bodied entry.

(LEFT) It was a dragster, Dave Brown driving the "Beedy & Malloy" car (near lane) versus Anthony Whitfield in his small-block Chevy powered "Mighty Mouse" fuel altered in the far lane. Whitfield was up in smoke on the launch and coasted to a 7.179 - 56.19 clocking, while Brown got a little further before running into trouble and shuttin off early, carding a 4.833 - 127.80 time.

(RIGHT) Two of the four Randy Meyer Racing cars met in the next pairing, as the A/Fuel dragsters of Matt Sackman (near lane), driving the usually Julie Nataas driven "OTG" entry, blitzed the clocks with a great 3.727 - 174.08 to grab the #2 spot in the "A" field. In the far lane, Rachel Meyer ran hard to the 330' mark, before losing traction and slowing to a 4.442 - 117.55 in her "Rachel Meyer Racing" entry.

(LEFT) This looks like something out of the 'Twilight Zone' as the STREET-LEGAL '34 Ford coupe of Brian Kohlmann regularly runs in "Drag Week" competition on gasoline, and starts this beast on gas before switching over to nitro. He had trouble keeping the fire lit after the burnout, but got it staged, and launched hard before heading for the guardrail and lifting. The scoreboards read 7.380 - 80.14, but the crowd was more than impressed with the cool factor of the street driven hot rod.

(RIGHT) Things got very serious with the next pair as Todd Bruce driving the Cliff Bakx owned and tuned Canadian "The Bull" A/Fuel dragster, blasted down the track to a 3.618 - 216.35 clocking. The only thing keeping him from setting low e.t. and top speed was the car in the other lane (almost totally obscured). That was Megan Meyer, two time NHRA National Champion in Top Alcohol Dragster, who jumped all the way to #1 with a brilliant 3.595 - 221.57 effort. That moved the bump spot for the "A" field down to a 3.947 with two pairs remaining in the staging lanes.

(LEFT) Running strongly to the 330' mark before lifting, Joe Gallegos hustled the "Nitro Clown" AA/Fuel Dragster to a 4.225 - 148.71 timeslip that slotted him into the bottom half of the "B" field as the first qualifying session came to a conclusion.

(RIGHT) The last pair of the session featured Dusty Hunt in the "Fuellish Addiction" Funny Car getting out of shape and shutting off to a 5.078 - 95.24, while Gary Wheeler Jr. in the "Brook & Wheeler" AA/Fuel Dragster made it a little further down track before clicking it to a 4.551 - 112.44 to place him just outside the "B" field in the #17 position.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #2

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NITRO CHAOS - Qualifying Session #2

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It was a great weekend of racing at the third FUNNY CAR CHAOS event of the 2023 season at Eddyville Raceway Park (Oskaloosa, IA). Making it a true "double down" show was the addition of two full fields of NITRO CHAOS cars, ranging from full-on Nitro Funny Cars, to real Fuel Altereds, NHRA A/Fuel dragsters, front-engine blown fuel dragsters, and just for the heck of it, a blown fuel Pro Mod. The fans certainly got their money's worth with some close racing, great performances like Dale Creasy Jr.'s pass in the second qualifying session Saturday night that lit up the scoreboards with a 3.401 - 215.21. When qualfying came to a close yesterday afternoon, the bump spot for the "B" field in Nitro Chaos stood at 3.991, held down by Levi Keenen's NHRA Heritage series-legal Funny Car. Not to be overshadowed were the Funny Car Chaos contingent which had their entire "A" field qualified at 3.889 or better.

NITRO CHAOS - "A" field FINAL

We've only got time to post one picture this morning, but the "A" field final round clash in the Nitro Chaos division was a classic. In the near lane, in her Gunk-sponsored "Queen Bee" A/Fuel dragster was Megan Meyer. Facing her was the quickest and fastest car of the weekend, the Tek Pak-sponsored "Big Show" nitro Funny Car of Dale Creasy Jr.. When the lights flashed it was Meyer away first by less than a hundredth, but Creasy took an early lead with a stout .892 time at the 60' clocks, and held the lead until the 500' mark. He was forced to lift at that point and "coasted" through the lights at 3.54 - 192.06, while Meyer kept the loud pedal down and rang up a winning 3.54 - 223.10 time. The true-win margin was just .015 seconds. What a fitting end to a great weekend of racing at Eddyville Raceway Park.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "A" field FINAL

Usually the feature attraction at Funny Car Chaos races, the "A" final had to play second fiddle to the Nitro Chaos gang. In a bit of a surprise, the Van Hauen Brothers (near lane) took the win over the equally surprising Mike Newkirk (far lane) in his "Disturbed" entry. Newkirk qualified #4, while Wade (or was it Lance?) Van Hauen sat in the #6 position. Both drivers put down solid efforts to reach the final and with their wealth of experience in NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car competition, neither driver was unprepared for the match. It was a very close race all the way to the finish line, but Newkirk came up short on two counts: second across the finish line and taking out the finish line timing block. That invalidated his great effort of 3.79 - 195.99, and to add injury to insult, he ended up against the wall in the circle track area of the facility. In the other lane, Wade (or is it Lance?) Van Hauen took his first ever win at an FCC event, turning on the winlight with an excellent 3.75 - 200.98 clocking, his best of the weekend. A very exciting way to finish the event, and the good news is that Newkirk was uninjured and damage to his car was minor.

NITRO CHAOS - "B" field FINAL

Despite two very different body styles, with Jim Gifford in his "Svengali" Funny Car (near lane) and Gary Wheeler Jr. in the classic front-engined dragster (far lane), but racers were running blown fuel engines. They had qualified at the top of the "B" field, with Gifford #1 and Wheeler #2, so it was very fitting that they met in the final. Both cars left hard, with big header flames, but just past the 330' mark, Wheeler's mount started dancing around, eventually getting up on three wheels before he was able to get it back under control. That opened the door for Gifford to turn on the winlight, with his best run of the weekend, a 3.70 - 195.48, while Wheeler coasted across the line at 4.58 - 104.24 for the loss.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "B" field FINAL

The "B" field final pitted two Coloradans, both driving Firebird-bodied cars, and both running Hemis, but Tom Furches (near lane) was running blown on alcohol, while opponent Steve Griboski in the newly rebodied "Mile-High Express" (far lane) was blown on nitro. Griboski had a mishap last week at a match race at Bandimere Speedway, which wiped out his very cool looking '65 Mustang body, but he was able to recover in time to compete at Eddyville. Completing the amazing comeback was his excellent 3.95 - 195.91 pass for the win over a close 4.01 - 179.50 from Furches. There was a large cloud of smoke in Griboski's lane as he crossed the lane but the track was clear and the cars both made the turnout at the end of the track.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - "C" field FINAL

With four final rounds in FCC competition under his belt, Chuck Loftin (near lane) was primed to take the event win in his "Nitro Psycho". Facing him was Justin Herbst (far lane) in his "Executioner" entry. When the lights came down, Loftin launched into another wheelstand (he'd been fighting them all weekend), but pedalled and kept trying until he gave up just before the finish line. Meanwhile, Herbst was trucking to the tune of a 4.27 - 165.87 winning time. Loftin clicked it off to a 4.48 - 130.55 losing effort. Herbst also brought the wheels up on the launch but kept it under control and glued to the track for the win.

As promised, here's the photos from Friday evening's Test Session for the Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos entrants at Eddyville Raceway Park. Not everyone ran in this session but there was quite a variety of car types, fuels burned and engine configurations on display. We'll fill in the blanks - ie. the captions - on Tuesday as we've already got a heap of pics to post from yesterday's first two qualifying sessions, and of course, today's final qualifier and eliminations. Stay tuned for updates over the next two days.

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Last night was a PRO test session for all the Nitro Chaos and Funny Car Chaos entrants at Eddyville Raceway. Taking place in the evening, starting at dusk and continuing into the night, the header flames from the fuel burners lit up the sky and entertained the crowds that flocked to the event. Today sees the first two qualifying sessions for both the NC and FCC racers, starting with the first session mid-afternoon and the second go-round starting at 6pm. Our intrepid photographer, "BIG" Bob Snyder is there, despite some mobility issues and he's sent a batch of photos from the test session. Unfortunately, we won't have time to post them today, but will get them up tomorrow morning.

Highlight of the evening was the Ken Singleton tuned, Shayne Lawson owned and driven "Man O' War II" that set low e.t. and top speed of the evening at 3.73 - 203.62 to take a $750 bonus cheque from Funny Car Chaos sponsors Wulff Pumps, Spell Paving, and Quick Performance. On the Nitro Chaos side, Todd Bruce in the Cliff Bakx owned and tuned Canadian "The Bull" A/Fuel Dragster. We haven't gone far enough through the FLOracing.com video to check out his numbers but nonetheless, the $750 went to Bruce and Bakx.

Today is the first of three days of Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos racing at Eddyville Raceway Park. Testing begins this evening and qualifying starts tomorrow, with final qualifying and eliminations on Sunday. With more than 50 cars entered, and at more than half of them burning nitro, it's going to be one of the biggest non-NHRA events of the 2023 season. We expect to see some of the first photos from "BIG" Bob Snyder in our inbox tomorrow morning, with many more to follow over the next few days. Stay tuned!

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